Mike Thomas, chair of the association, has written to secretaries of state Ed Balls, Jacqui Smith and Jack Straw highlighting concerns about the lack of cash for youth crime prevention projects after March 2008.
Thomas said he anticipated around 1,200 jobs would be "at risk" within youth offending teams across England and Wales, with many teams already reporting staff leaving because of uncertainty about the future of their roles. According to research carried out by the association there are 35,000 young people at risk of offending involved in prevention programmes across England and Wales.
"At the moment youth offending teams aren't going to receive funding and are having to put some sort of exit strategy in place," Thomas said. "It's crazy. Research is out saying about 3,000 crimes are supposedly committed by under-10s and there's so much talk about antisocial behaviour, yet work is going to grind to a halt as we have six months' funding left."
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