HOME OFFICE News
Release (132/2008) issued by The Government News Network on 15 July 2008
Getting young
people off the streets late at night, intensive support for the
most problematic families and tougher, more visible Community
Payback sentences for young people were announced today by Home
Secretary Jacqui Smith, Justice Secretary Jack Straw and
Children's Secretary Ed Balls as they unveiled the
Government's new Youth Crime Action Plan.
Over the past decade significant resources have been invested in
tackling youth offending and improving outcomes for young people.
This has delivered:
* A 17.4 percent fall in the number of re-offences committed
between 2000 and 2005;
* Almost 3000 Sure Start Centres providing access to services for
over 2.27 million young people and their families have been
established across the country;
* The average time from arrest to sentence for persistent young
offenders has been halved from 142 days in 1997 to 58 days in
April this year, ensuring swifter justice for more young people
and their victims.
Overall youth crime remains stable but challenges remain
particularly around alcohol-related crime, delinquent peer groups
and gangs and young people carrying knives. Each year around
100,000 young people aged 10 -17 enter the criminal justice system
for the first time. The new Action Plan aims to reduce this rate
by one fifth by 2020 and in turn to substantially reduce the
number of young victims.
The £100 million Youth Crime Action Plan sets out a comprehensive
package of tough enforcement and intensive prevention measures as
well as more support for parents to tackle offending and reduce re-offending.
It will support families with the most entrenched and complex
problems in all areas of England and will also offer an intensive
programme of action for priority areas where the problem of youth
crime is greatest.
The range of measures announced today includes:
Better prevention and support for victims
* An expansion of the successful Family Intervention Projects to
20,000 families. In all 110,000 families with children at risk of
future high-rate offending will be reached through additional
support which will ensure that problems are tackled early before
difficulties spiral out of control;
* Increasing the proportion of ASBOs accompanied by a parenting order;
* Expanding Safer Schools Partnerships;
* Expanding provision of youth centres and other activities at
times when young people are likely to offend, including Friday and
Saturday nights;
* Making permanent exclusion from school an automatic trigger to
a comprehensive assessment of needs;
* Expansion of Family Nurse Partnerships; and,
* Innovative ways to support young victims and improving support
to witnesses when they attend court.
Tough enforcement
* Using safeguarding legislation to remove at-risk children and
young people from the streets late at night[0] (Operation Staysafe);
* Greater use of existing police enforcement tactics, including
measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and underage drinking;
* New police enforcement tactics to ensure visible patrols during
after-school hours; and,
* Street-based teams of youth workers and ex-gang members to
tackle groups of young people involved in crime and disorder.
More visible and effective sentencing
* Better cross agency coordination to identify and target
prolific offenders;
* Giving the community the opportunity to say what type of
reparation work they want young people on community sentences to
undertake, and making them feel the consequences of their actions
by requiring them to undertake this work on Friday and Saturday nights;
* Piloting court reviews of high-risk young offenders on
community sentences; and,
* Setting out for the first time principles for the use of
custody for young people, which uphold custody as the appropriate
response for serious, violent or persistent young offenders to
ensure public protection.
Reducing re-offending
* A new duty on local authorities to fund and commission
education of young offenders in custody;
* Developing a more comprehensive package of support for young
people leaving custody; and,
* Ensure access to suitable accommodation and health services for
all young offenders leaving custody.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said:
"We know that the vast majority of young people recognise
right from wrong and make a positive contribution to our society.
There are a minority however who persist in anti-social behaviour
and some in more serious criminal activity.
"Youth Crime can have a devastating effect on victims and
communities and must be tackled head-on. Today I want to send the
message to perpetrators that their actions are unacceptable. They
must understand the consequences their behaviour has not only on
victims and communities but on their families and their futures.
"Increasingly we are able to identify these young people
early and intervene to address the root causes of their behaviour,
including supporting and challenging their parents in meeting
their responsibilities.
"But I want to call on parents to play their part. Tough
enforcement and policing is only one part of the solution. The new
action we are launching today gives equal weight to the
triple-track approach of intensive prevention, tough enforcement
and support for parents.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw said:
"For that small minority of out of control young people
custody is the answer. The crimes they have committed are so
serious that there can be no other way of dealing with them. If
they deserve to be inside, they will go there.
"One aim of the new Action Plan is to divert young people
away from crime, so that they are not unnecessarily drawn into the
criminal justice system.
"The Plan will ensure that those at risk of offending are
identified as quickly as possible and, along with their families,
are given appropriate levels of support to tackle the cause of
their behaviour.
"Tough community sentences, the new Youth Rehabilitation
Order and, where necessary custodial sentences will force young
people to face up to the suffering they have caused and ensure
that they do not go unpunished, but the Plan also sets out how
better resettlement will help reform these young people and get
their lives back on track."
Children's Secretary Ed Balls said:
"The vast majority of young people are not involved in crime
but we must to be tough on the few young people who are and reduce
the harm they cause. It's also vital we prevent those who are
at risk from getting into this type of behaviour in the first
place. This is not a simple choice between enforcement,
non-negotiable support or prevention. We need all of those things
to work together both at a national level and locally through
Children's Trusts if we are to have a real impact on youth crime.
"By targeting families and spotting the problems where
children and young people are getting out of control we can
intervene and transform their lives - providing them with a real
opportunity to fulfil their potential. Today's announcement
to expand Family Intervention Projects means more families will
get a key worker to help them manage their problems and provide
them with both the support and sanctions to motivate them to
change their behaviour.
"We said in the Children's Plan that we would work
together with mainstream services to prevent youth crime, deal
swiftly with those involved in youth crime and work to prevent
re-offending. Today this action plan does just that."
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Youth Crime Action Plan can be found at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/youth-crime-action-plan
2. We will work closely with the Welsh Government to implement
those aspects of the Action Plan which apply both in England and
Wales, including those policies which cover sentencing and police
led initiatives, pilots for increased support for victims; youth
offending team workers being available in police stations to
identify problems early; and police officers taking young people
who are putting themselves in danger to a place of safety.
3. The Family Intervention Project evaluation was published on 10
July 2008 and reported on the early outcomes for 90 families. The
study found that the projects:
* Halved the proportion of families reported to exhibit poor
parenting (60 percent to 32 percent);
* Reduced the number of families engaged in four or more types of
anti-social behaviour from 61 to 7 percent;
* Halved the number of families facing one or more enforcement
action such as Acceptable Behaviour Contracts from 45 - 23 percent.
4. The Family Intervention Project model, launched nationally in
2006 involves a dedicated key worker who is assigned to a family
to assess their needs, develop a support plan and co-ordinate the
delivery of services. Persistence and assertive working methods as
well as the possibility of sanctions, are critical to keeping
families engaged and following agreed steps. There are now 65 FIPs
across the country.
5. The Offending, Crime and Justice Survey Youth Offending Survey
2006 can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs08/hosb0908.pdf
6. The findings from the 2006 OCJS show that the majority of
young people are law-abiding. The survey is based on interviews
with 5000 10 - 17 year olds about their experiences of crime, not
recorded crime or court data. Over three-quarters (78%) had not
committed any of the 20 core offences covered by the survey.
The 20 core offences are:
* domestic burglary;
* commercial burglary.
* theft of a
vehicle;
* theft of parts off outside of a vehicle;
*
theft of items inside a vehicle;
* attempted theft of a
vehicle;
* attempted theft from a vehicle.
* theft from
place of work;
* theft from school;
* theft from
shop;
* theft from the person;
* miscellaneous
thefts.
* damage to a vehicle;
* damage to other
property.
* robbery of an individual;
* robbery of a
business.
* assault resulting in injury;
* non-injury
assault
* selling Class A drugs;
* selling other drugs