Policy & Practice: Soapbox - Youth offending teams benefit from araised profile

Public knowledge of an agency or service is directly related to the perception of its effectiveness. Youth offending teams have made great strides in tackling youth crime, and have much to shout about. The nature of the way young offenders are dealt with in the community has changed, and we must now make sure that the public has a more meaningful knowledge of the alternatives to custody if we are to inspire faith in community sentencing.

The Youth Justice Board has always encouraged youth offending teams to make links with their local community. We have offered media training to all team, youth inclusion project and intensive supervision and surveillance programme managers. We see the local and regional press as vital in our efforts to raise the profile of youth offending teams. Regional newspapers are read by 84 per cent of all adults, a third of whom do not read a national newspaper. Every day I see cuttings from local newspapers that present youth offending teams positively and demonstrate the effective work that is being done to tackle young offenders.