Interview: Safety in the community - Clare Checksfield, chief executive, Crime Concern

Having worked at the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, she jumped at the chance to move to a charity involved in groundbreaking work on crime.

There was a natural link with her previous experience, which included heading up the Street Crime initiative. Part of that challenge involved working with young people at risk of being drawn into crime.

Checksfield has spent much of her first two months at Crime Concern visiting local projects. "I've been trying to get a sense of the wide range of work we do, largely centred around community safety, crime prevention and youth inclusion, and what is distinctive about Crime Concern," she says.

The charity has led the way through partnership work with local crime and disorder partnerships and organisations such as the Youth Justice Board. But Checksfield believes it is the focus on local delivery and genuine involvement of young people that really makes the charity stand out.

Crime Concern also places great importance on including young people from all backgrounds and tailoring its approach to the needs of different groups. "We're doing some really interesting work with Muslim youth," she says.

At the heart of the charity's approach is a focus on prevention, working with young people, their families and communities before problems spiral out of control.

"There is not enough money put into prevention work," says Checksfield. "This is partly because there isn't ringfenced money going into prevention and money comes from a lot of different sources."

Politicians can see that stepping in early is much easier than working with young people already in the criminal justice system - and cheaper in the long run - but securing that investment is still hard.

"The single most important lesson I have learned is that this is a long-term agenda. When you're working with 13-year-olds it could be 10 years before you see the impact you have had," says Checksfield.

"At the moment, particularly in crime, that's very difficult for central government, especially working with short-term funding cycles in quite a febrile political environment."

It's a similar story with rehabilitation work for young offenders, an area where Crime Concern does a lot of work with the aim of cutting reoffending rates. Prevention has a crucial role when it comes to antisocial behaviour orders (Asbos), which can be a "back door entry" to custody, adds Checksfield.

"Some of our projects work closely with Asbo co-ordinators with the aim of trying to prevent young people from getting an Asbo," she explains.

Alongside the usual funding issues, a major challenge for Crime Concern is demonstrating that its work is effective and makes a difference.

The shift towards local commissioning of services for children and young people means the charity will have to work closely with councils and others to look at ways it can help them meet their goals.

Overall, there is now a greater emphasis on partnership working both locally and across government between departments such as the Home Office, Department for Children, Schools and Families, and Department for Communities and Local Government.

"I feel incredibly positive about what ministers are saying and their commitment and priorities," she says. "But there's a big jump from what people say in Whitehall and what happens locally. We have got to remember to keep the focus on that."

BACKGROUND - Crime Concern

- Crime Concern is a national charity working across England and Wales to reduce crime, antisocial behaviour and fear of crime

- Last year it worked with 16,000 young people and a further 700 families through many local projects including work in schools and community initiatives to tackle crime

- It works with a raft of partners from central and local government, youth justice, business and other voluntary organisations

- The charity manages the Positive Futures programme, which engages disadvantaged young people through sport and leisure activities

- www.crimeconcern.org.uk.