Targeting Initiatives: Diverting Children and Young People from Crime and Antisocial Behaviour

140 Pages·2004·1.28 MB·English

by  Chris Pickard

R
ESEARCH
Targeting Initiatives:
Diverting Children and Young
People from Crime and
Antisocial Behaviour
Peter McCarthy, James Whitman,
Janet Walker and Mike Coombes
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
Newcastle Centre for Family Studies
Research Report RR476
Research Report
No 476

Targeting Initiatives:
Diverting Children and Young
People from Crime and
Antisocial Behaviour

Peter McCarthy, James Whitman, Janet
Walker and Mike Coombes
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
Newcastle Centre for Family Studies

The views expressed in this report are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education and Skills.

© Queen’s Printer 2003. Published with the permission of DfES on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
Applications for reproduction should be made in writing to The Crown Copyright Unit, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, St Clements
House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BQ.

ISBN 1 84478 090 2
September 2003
Contents

List of Figures iv

List of Tables v

List of Maps vii

Acknowledgements viii

Chapter 1 Setting the Context 1

Chapter 2 Understanding Multiple Initiatives 5

Chapter 3 Area-based Initiatives and the On Track Programme 15

Chapter 4 Area-based Initiatives Outside Of On Track Areas 27

Chapter 5 Case Studies of Four Areas 49

Chapter 6 The Consequences of Proliferation 125

1
List of Figures

Figure 3.1 An ecological model of risk and resilience 15

Figure 4.1 Area-based initiatives in the Borough of Conwy 30

Figure 5.1 Approach to fieldwork 50

Figure 5.2 Ecological risk management 114

2
List of Tables

Table 2.1 Sponsorship of area-based initiatives 6

Table 3.1 Risk factors 18

Table 3.2 Protective factors 19

Table 3.3 Area-based initiatives and how they might affect the risk 20
of young people engaging in crime or antisocial behaviour

Table 3.4 Other area-based initiatives operating in On Track areas 25
which could affect risk factors associated with crime and
antisocial behaviour

Table 4.1 Characteristics of the other fifteen On Track areas 28

Table 4.2 Characteristics of twelve local authorities selected as comparators 29

Table 4.3 Other area-based initiatives operating in the twelve study areas 32
which could affect risk factors associated with crime and
antisocial behaviour

Table 5.1 Initiatives operating in Hastings 57

Table 5.2 Projects operating in Hastings 58

Table 5.3 Initiatives operating in Newham 72

Table 5.4 Projects operating in Newham 73

Table 5.5 Partnership infrastructure in Newham 79

Table 5.6 Initiatives operating in Redcar and Cleveland 89

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Table 5.7 Projects operating in Redcar and Cleveland 92

Table 5.8 Initiatives operating in Wolverhampton 108

Table 5.9 Projects operating in Wolverhampton 109

4
List of Maps

Map 5.1 The Borough of Hastings and St Leonards 54

Map 5.2 The London Borough of Newham 68

Map 5.3 The Borough of Redcar and Cleveland 90

Map 5.4 The City of Wolverhampton 106

5
Acknowledgements

The research leading to this report was funded initially by the Home Office and later by
the Children and Young People’s Unit. Our objective has been to increase understanding
of the local circumstances that provide the context in which area-based initiatives operate.
The principal focus has been on the On Track programme, an area-based initiative that is
attempting to prevent development of criminal and antisocial behaviour by working with
at-risk children and their families.

Several colleagues at the Newcastle Centre for Family Studies have helped us to complete
this research, particularly John Kain who helped us to map the range of services available
within the study areas. Our research has benefited substantially from the involvement of
representatives of the Home Office and the Children and Young People’s Unit. Sara
Trikha has been involved throughout and we are grateful for the unstinting support that
she has provided. Her commitment to the project was sustained when Chris Cuthbert
became involved as a representative of the CYPU. We have very much enjoyed working
with Sara and Chris, and are grateful for their contributions to our research. Our thanks go
also to their colleagues for their interest in our work.

We owe thanks to the various people who have given of their time to assist in our
fieldwork. Those people who responded to our requests for information about area-based
initiatives, or completed our questionnaire, provided useful insights. They were an
important starting point for developing contacts with service providers in our four main
study areas. The report would not have been possible were it not for the help we received
from people working in the Wolverhampton, Hastings, Newham, and Redcar and
Cleveland areas. We are extremely grateful to them for the information they provided
about the delivery of services at a local level. There are too many people involved to be
able to name them all, and some may prefer to remain anonymous. Nevertheless, it would
be remiss of us not to give particular thanks to Simon Hubbard and Janet Broughton who
helped to organise our fieldwork in Hastings, and to Hayden Powell who provided similar
help in Newham.

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Chapter 1

Setting the Context
This study was
designed to develop understanding of the targeting of area-based initiatives and their
potential for diverting young people from involvement in crime and/or antisocial
behaviour. It is intended to support work being undertaken in connection with the On
Track programme, which provides multi-initiatives to young people deemed to be at risk.
Our study maps and describes a range of initiatives which may impact on young children,
whether or not they are specific targets for the interventions involved, with the aim of
contextualising the kinds of circumstances in which programmes such as On Track
operate.

The On Track Programme
The On Track programme comprises 24 projects across England and Wales which
provide multiple interventions involving children aged 4–12 who are considered to be at
risk of becoming involved in criminal and/or antisocial behaviour. The Home Office
launched the programme at the end of 1999, as part of the Government’s Crime
Reduction Programme. The On Track projects are led by partnerships which consist of
key local agencies and organisations that work with families and children. These are
located in high-crime, high-deprivation communities. In each location, an enhanced range
of preventative services are aimed at children aged between 4 and 12 and their families. It
is envisaged that children who are at risk of offending will be identified early through
intensive inter-agency co-operation, and that they and their families will be provided with
consistent services during the period of the children’s development. The aim is to foster
areas of excellence which deliver real reductions in delinquency in high-crime
communities, and to answer pressing questions about which approaches to early
prevention work best to reduce levels of crime.
On Track takes its lead from research which highlights the significance of multi-faceted
interventions.1 When it drew up the specifications for projects, the Home Office described
the core interventions as being:
Home visits – by health visitors and/or trained parents to build trusting
relationships, offer support and develop parents’ strengths and capacities.
Pre-school education – offering a structured, child-centred and child-initiated
learning model with substantial parental involvement.
Parent support and training – focusing on techniques for positive behaviour,
helping parents develop clear expectations, reinforcing positive responses and
developing effective non-violent strategies for coping with negative behaviour.
Family therapy – personal and family therapy for more serious problems focusing
on improving communication and problem solving.

1See e.g. Yokishawa, H., ‘Prevention as cumulative protection: effects of early family support and
education on chronic delinquency and its risks’, Psychological Bulletin, vol. 115 (1994), pp. 28–54.
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Home/school partnerships – to develop parenting skills, enhance social
development, address children’s problems in school, and improve
communications with families.
Home/school support work – with children at risk of exclusion.
Specialised services – specialised interventions such as speech therapy and mental
health services to be available as needed.2
The objectives of the programme are threefold:
1. To achieve a substantial reduction in the likelihood that children will
become offenders.

2. To deliver an enhanced range of evidence-based preventive services
and inter-agency co-operation.

3. To foster areas of excellence in early intervention.3
The Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate was initially
responsible for managing the evaluation of the On Track programme, 4 and it
commissioned a research team from Sheffield University to conduct national evaluation
in collaboration with four local evaluation teams who were charged with collecting data
from individual pilot areas. It was anticipated that the following indicators would be
employed for measuring the success of the programme:
• rates of offending among children in the target age group and those in the 13–17
age group
• rates of attendance at school among children in the target age group and those in
the 13–17 age group
• rates of exclusions at school among the target age group and those in the 13–17
age group
• numbers of children doing poorly at Key Stages 1 and 2
• rates of attendance/admission at accident and emergency departments

Multiple Initiatives

We have not been involved in evaluation of On Track, but we have been concerned with
understanding relationships between initiatives within and outside On Track areas, and, in
particular, with speculating on how these might influence evaluation. The multi-initiatives
provided under the On Track aegis might not impact on crime and antisocial behaviour in
isolation from other initiatives taking place in the same localities. We intended to explore
potential interactions between On Track initiatives and other government-sponsored area-
based initiatives. It is important to recognise that area-based initiatives (ABIs) are not
implemented in a void where no relevant initiatives are in place already, and our research

2 Invitation To Tender for the On Track Multiple Interventions Programme, Home Office Research,
Development and Statistics Directorate (2000), pp. 21–2.
3 ibid., p. 24.
4 Since the start of the programme management responsibility has been transferred to the Children and
Young People’s Unit.
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