Charity seminar examines at-risk young people

Children’s charity Barnardo’s Northern Ireland has held a seminar looking at what works best with young people who are in danger of offending.

The seminar, which took place in Newry on Wednesday, heard from staff members at Barnardo’s Armagh and Dungannon Adolescent Partnership and the Newry Adolescent Partnership; both services have developed community based services for young people at risk of entering care or custody.

“The initial impetus for the development of these services was a shared concern among a number of agencies, both statutory and voluntary, about young people involved in anti-social behaviour,” said Tina McCrossan, Assistant Director with Barnardo’s Northern Ireland.

“Barnardo’s believes that not only is it more cost effective to work with young people in their communities and stop them going into custody, (£19,000 per referral in custody, under £4,000 to one of Barnardo’s services), but it is also better for the young person involved , their families or carers and the community at large.”

The charity made a number of recommendations at the briefing and introduced a policy and practice document:

• Funding should be made available to allow for further development of community based partnership youth services.
• The introduction of ASBOs is a punitive step and undermines a restorative and community based approach to dealing with youth offending.
• Orders should not be given to young people under 16 while age of criminal responsibility should raised (at 10 it is one of the lowest in Europe).
• A study on rates of re-offending for young people in custody and those in community based services should be undertaken.

Copies of the policy and practice briefing 'Troubled children or children in trouble?' are available free of charge from the policy unit at Barnardo’s Northern Ireland on tel: 028 9067 2366 or email: nicola.darnbrook@barnardos.org.uk.

(MB/SP)