Troubled young people forced to accept support
Alison Bennett
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Young people involved in antisocial behaviour will be assigned key workers as part of a 218m pound crackdown on the problem.
The Youth Taskforce Action Plan includes the measure to create 20 junior family intervention projects during the next three years.
The projects will be based on the adult family intervention projects that have been piloted across England. Like the adult equivalent, the junior projects will require young people to sign contracts agreeing to change their behaviour and assign them with key workers.
The key workers will try to ensure the young people stick to the contract and get any support they need, such as drug treatment.
But if the 10- to 19-year-olds taking part in the project refuse to improve their behaviour they could be given antisocial behaviour orders or individual support orders to make them co-operate.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls said the government's first priority is to put laws in place to stop antisocial behaviour. "The action plan will go further to tackle antisocial behaviour by making sure we take strong actions to tackle the underlying causes such as substance misuse and family breakdown," he said.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families also published the Aiming High Implementation Plan yesterday. The implementation plan sets out how the 55 commitments made by ministers in the 10-year youth strategy will be met.
It also sets out how the government's youth taskforce will support the delivery of Aiming High by helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
