CYP Now - Funding special: Youth Justice - The Crime Prevention Scene (1)

At the end of last year, 1,200 jobs in youth offending teams were "at risk". Government funds have staved off a crisis at the eleventh hour, but as Jon Scott finds out, it's too late to stop all the damage.

Much ado about nothing. That, at least, might be the harsh verdict now that children's minister Ed Balls has announced that £66m is to be ploughed into projects to prevent children and young people from offending. The announcement, made as part of the launch of the government's 10-year Children's Plan, added to existing funding from the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and brings the total for prevention schemes to £99m over the next three years. It should mean that those 35,000 young people deemed at risk of offending will continue to be involved in prevention programmes across England and Wales, and the majority of the 1,200 youth crime prevention jobs that seemed in jeopardy will exist for a while yet. So surely the whole saga can be relegated to a folder marked "curious" in the annals of 2007?

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