This comment was typical of the many positive reactions we received from the 140 delegates who attended the North East Regional Youth Crime Action Plan Conference on 4 February. The success of the day was due in no small part to the excellent degree of cross government collaboration that underpinned the planning from start to finish.
We jointly hosted the event with the Youth Justice Board but received considerable input from the Youth Task Force and support from the Families at Risk division within Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Delegates were drawn from a broad range of partner organisations operating across all 12 of our local authority partnerships and included the police, youth offending services managers, Targeted Youth Support lead officers, parenting commissioners, community safety officers, children’s services commissioners, and representatives of the courts.
Through a range of high quality policy presentations and regional commentaries, coupled with a keynote speech from Anne Weinstock, Director of the Youth Task Force, we fulfilled the aims we had set to:
- promote a clear understanding of the Youth Crime Action Plan
- stimulate informed debate and discussion about the critical contribution of each partner organisation to its delivery
- share some early lessons from the new initiatives that partnerships are rolling out in response to the plan.
Delegates felt this was a timely event. The locality based roundtable discussions gave them the opportunity to reflect on the insights shared and to take stock of their progress in planning 2009-10 delivery of the seven key elements of the intensive package of support and challenge.
Our plan is to build on this collaborative approach as we support and monitor implementation of the action plan across the region. And to run a follow-up event to disseminate further learning from the variety of targeted initiatives which partnerships are now rolling out with significant impact.
If you would like further information on the conference please contact:
Dave Bowditch
Youth Crime Lead
Government Office for the North East
Tel: 0191 202 2225
Email: dave.bowditch@gone.gsi.gov.uk
