Government announcements are usually accompanied by unfathomably large numbers as ministers drive forward their agendas with multimillion pound programmes.
So expectation was high last week when the Home Office used its five-year crime plan to unveil an expansion of youth inclusion programmes (YIPs) to stop young people becoming criminals.
YIPs use a highly targeted youth work model to work with the 50 people in each area aged 13 to 16 who are considered to be most at risk of committing crime. The Home Office plans to raise the number of YIPs in operation by 50 per cent by March 2008. A similar increase in the number of Youth Inclusion and Support Panels, which work with children aged eight to 13, was also announced.
But the 50 per cent increase in YIPs promised by Home Secretary David Blunkett only adds up to another 36 projects (YPN, 21-27 July, p2).
While the increase was welcomed, some youth professionals may have been left feeling like they had won the star prize, only to find it was a week on a residential.
Acceptance of YIP impact
But Bob Ashford, head of prevention at the Youth Justice Board, is positive about this detailed outcome of the Government's spending review, in light of the fact that three years previously the board had to fight just to retain the 72 YIPs in operation.
He says: "Now there is a strong acceptance across Government and at the highest levels that these schemes are having a huge impact on local communities and young people. I would always wish, and our aim is, to see an awful lot more YIPs. But even with a 50 per cent increase, there are still many areas that would clearly want the benefits of having a YIP."
Ashford says that the way YIPs were funded, with about 75,000 per programme from the Youth Justice Board to be matched locally, reinforces the need to develop partnerships among the communities where the programmes operate. "I'm a big advocate of matched funding," he adds.
An evaluation of YIPs published last summer showed that they were having a positive impact in the areas in which they ran. About 73 per cent of the young people were not arrested after signing up. Of those that had already been arrested, three-quarters were taken into custody less often.
Youth charity Enthusiasm, which runs Derby's YIP, gathers funding from a huge range of sources to match the Youth Justice Board cash, including money from Connexions, the Home Office, Single Regeneration Budget, drug action teams and an array of charities.
Derby's YIP is flagged up in the Home Office strategy and is probably one of the most successful in England, boasting a staggering 94.6 per cent fall in arrest rates in the area.
Peter Pickering, prevention manager for Derby Youth Offending Service, managed the city's YIP when it was launched four years ago and is still involved. He says a key reason for its success is the way the scheme has brought community organisations together.
"It would have been difficult not to have acknowledged that YIPs are working," adds Pickering.
Positive activities
The activities that young people take part in at the Derby YIP will sound familiar. DJ workshops, residentials, youth achievement awards, mentoring and outdoor pursuits are among the project's arsenal of activities to turn young people at risk of involvement in crime around.
Not only does the project reach the constantly revised list of 50 young people most at risk in the area, it also works with another 100 people who are their peers and siblings. And the YIP channels the young people into other youth work schemes, such as Positive Activities for Young People.
Joseph Russo, chief executive of Enthusiasm, says that, as a community-based organisation, it is in a good position to know what local teenagers need.
"We've been here on the Osmaston and Allenton housing estate since 1992, so we were already engaged with young people," he says. "Young people don't view us as an authority and that helps."
Russo is delighted that the success of YIPs has been acknowledged, but adds: "There will come a time where there will need to be more investment in the future.
"Our young people on the list have almost all had offences committed against them as children - they are damaged goods. I think you have to be careful about how you perceive young people. When you pull back their tough exterior, they are very sensitive."
See Briefing, p10
ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
Tackling antisocial behaviour was a common thread running through the Home Office's five-year strategy. More on-the-spot fines were promised, with an increasing list of possible offences such as misuse of fireworks, criminal damage and minor theft. Plans were also revealed for a pilot to allow police officers to issue fines to young people aged 10 to 15.
Court sessions
There was a bold promise to provide antisocial behaviour court sessions, currently running in 12 areas with specialist prosecutors, for any area that needed them by December this year. These sessions can operate in youth courts for under-18s or in adult magistrates' sessions. While antisocial behaviour orders are a civil matter, the Crown Prosecution Service says the sessions can be used to issue an order upon conviction.
The specialist prosecutors, announced in April, are costing 2m and are funded for the next two years. The Crown Prosecution Service says the prosecutors are there "to ensure that the concerns of the community, victims and witnesses" are addressed.
Youth service role
Chris Stanley, head of youth crime at crime-reduction charity Nacro, welcomed the work with young people in the community in the plan, but he was worried that the Government could be sending out mixed messages.
"The Government has to win an election shortly and it has to hit the right buttons for public opinion," he says. "What is really needed is an expansion of the youth service. We could go a long way to avoiding the need for antisocial behaviour orders. We really need a statutory youth service."
