Editorial: A respect plan full of recycled initiatives

But the plan contains little that is new. It draws together different government departmental initiatives that are trying to deal with antisocial behaviour, low-level criminality, good parenting, family support, constructive activities and mentoring.

One genuinely new measure is the setting up of a National Parenting Academy to advise professionals that work on the front line, including youth workers and youth justice workers, on helping parents bring up their kids. There is also extra money for intensive family support schemes (see p9).

The plan nods its head to the Youth Matters green paper, namechecking the Youth Opportunity Card and Youth Opportunity Fund; the national youth voluntary service recommended last year by the Russell Commission; and an extra 45m for the Youth Justice Board to implement preventive programmes first set out in the 2004 Spending Review.