When they were elected last year, Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) were given the task of holding police forces to account and giving people a stronger voice in the policing of their communities.
Now a group of experts in policing, crime and social policy, want the powers of PCCs to be extended to include early intervention in youth crime. It is one of the key recommendations of a joint report published by the Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour and the Early Intervention Foundation.
The report – A Fresh Start to Tackling Youth Crime – follows on from a 2010 report by the independent commission, chaired by Sir Anthony Salz, which set out the case for investing early in addressing youth crime and offending behaviour.
Over the past three years, the commission has studied areas using prevention programmes, restorative justice and integrated offender support services and concluded that there is a financial benefit to tackling youth crime issues early.
"It's sort of a no-brainer that we should be spending money at the early stages of criminality because you can identify and deal with them before they become part of a much larger group," explains Salz.
Cutting youth crime
As a result, the commission wants PCCs to adopt the principles of prevention, restoration and integration and apply them in their local areas in an attempt to take cost-effective action to prevent and reduce youth crime.
The commission argues that PCCs hold the optimum position within their regions to lead change, implement evidence-based strategies for early intervention and build alliances with organisations in the local government, health and community sectors.
It also argues that PCCs have the opportunity to directly engage with children and young people in a bid to tackle youth crime and demonstrate their importance to their local communities - something that is already being done by the PCCs for Hampshire, Sussex and Leicestershire, who have launched their own Youth Commissions.
But how easy would it be for the commission's recommendations to be put into practice?
"We don't come at this with any particular historic agenda," says Amanda Webster, assistant PCC for Lancashire and an advocate of the commission's approach.
"We have taken a stance in Lancashire that we can take a holistic view of services across the county and we can influence partners who are extremely keen now to talk about early intervention.
"My view is that PCCs must be driving the agenda and making sure that other leaders have that in their thinking."
David Utting, commission secretary and author of the report, believes PCCs can use their profile and position to lead a change of culture towards early intervention.
"They are well positioned to start pulling together and encouraging other agencies to work together and they have an influence that no one else has," he explains. "What is needed locally is looking at that evidence-based approach and then looking to apply that evidence on the understanding - and at the same time realising that there are going to be implications when you get to the end of the planning process.
"It is about bringing people together at the very beginning and getting people to understand that there will be financial implications."
Carey Oppenheim, chief executive of the Early Intervention Foundation, holds a similar view and believes multi-agency working is "very powerful".
High-profile support
She also believes the call for PCCs to prioritise early intervention within their policies can be aided by the backing of high-profile supporters.
"We have Tom Windsor, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, making a really powerful case for early intervention as being key to what police officers should be doing and what PCCs should be commissioning. That is a hugely powerful tool," she says.
"The next steps would be about how we, as an organisation, develop really good practical evidence that PCCs can use to make the case for early intervention.
"There's still a very important role for the foundation in reinforcing the messages that if we work with children when they are very young or young people before problems become really entrenched, you can prevent youth crime - but that message isn't really out there yet," she says.
Chief Superintendent Irene Curtis, president of the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales, says that early intervention is already moving up the agenda of PCCs.
"Last year, only two out of 41 PCCs mentioned early intervention as part of their manifestos," she says. "But there are now a huge number of PCCs who talk about early intervention. One of the really important elements will be about the evidence base because that will be one of the things that helps convince people that this works."
The commission's report also has the backing of MP Graham Allen, a trustee of the Early Intervention Foundation, who helped Nottingham become the first Early Intervention City in 2008.
YOUTH CRIME COSTS
£60bn – Annual cost of crime attributable to people with a conduct problem in childhood
£225,000 – Amount per child conduct disorder can cost over a lifetime
£4,000 – Rough cost of delivering parenting programmes to tackle conduct problems
Source: A Fresh Start to Tackling Youth Crime
