Interview: Crime stopper - Paul Cavadino, chief executive, Nacro

But Cavadino isn't complacent. At a time when youth crime is a mammoth concern for both the government and the public, he knows the charity must influence government at the highest levels.

"One of our aims is to make sure we can be more effective in influencing government policy in a number of areas," he says. "We're looking at the main areas of policy and priority. Although there have been moves in the right direction in many of them, the one we've failed to make an impact on is the prison population."

He says there are twice as many young people in custody as there was 10 years ago, with more work needed to bring numbers down. Cavadino feels that a return to the approach used in the 1980s could help to bring down the prison population.

"In the 1980s there was a substantial cut in the use of custody for juveniles and it was achieved by having a strategy around providing resources, more intensive treatment and supervision schemes.

"But a lot of other approaches helped at the same time," he says. "Legislation was passed putting restrictions on the use of custody for young people."

He feels this, coupled with a welfare-based approach would help tackle the rising custody numbers. "We need tighter statutory restrictions on the use of custody through to a really strong, co-ordinated effort by practitioners to ensure that the use of custody is minimal," he says. "It needs a moral crusade from everyone - government down to those working with young offenders. We need a united strategy of people committed to ensuring every young person unnecessarily sent to custody is a moral disgrace and a blot on a civilised society."

But Cavadino feels that for there to be a meaningful shift in reducing offending, there must be a consistent message from government. "Frequently we find that government ministers are echoing the views and proposals that we've put forward to them," he says. "But one big problem we have is the forked tongue approach. Ministers one moment talk about the need for prevention and supporting less use of custody and in the next breath there's tough rhetoric and blood-curdling tough talk about cracking down on offending with enforcement."

He is unconvinced about the youth rehabilitation order (YRO), which will come into play next April. It will replace existing community orders for under-18s and will give courts a menu of interventions to choose from to construct the sentence thought most likely to prevent the juvenile reoffending.

"In principle it makes sense but there is some risk that if a child on an order reoffends, the court may feel the YRO has failed and send the young person to custody," he says.

One of Cavadino's aims for the charity is to provide a more comprehensive service across England and Wales. He admits that despite a wide range of services for young people at risk of offending, the provision is not always joined up.

"Support for services is down to money and where we've been able to get funding," he says. "There are areas of the country where Nacro is the largest crime reduction charity and there are places where we have little in the way of services, for example in the South West of England. Offenders and people at risk don't usually only have one problem.

"They have multiple needs so we've set ourselves the target over the next few years to increase the number of areas providing a comprehensive range of Nacro services to 50 per cent by 2011."

BACKGROUND FACT FILE ON NACRO

- Nacro was established in 1966 and aims to make society safer by finding practical solutions to reducing crime

- It has more than 800 volunteers and 1,500 full-time members of staff

- The charity works to resettle ex-offenders and works in partnership with youth offending teams across inner London to promote good practice, develop policy and ensure consistency

- It also supports bail projects across England and Wales to make sure that wherever possible, young people can be safely remanded in the community instead of in prison

- It runs more than 200 projects across England and Wales.