Early Warning for Bad Behaviour

Trouble makers as young as 10 years old are to be asked to sign a good behaviour contract to stop them going off the rails.

The £218m scheme promises early intervention against disruption. These "most challenging" children will be given one-to-one support from a care worker and will have help with specific problems, such as drug abuse.
About 1,000 of the "most challenging" children will be expected to stick to the order, or risk a criminal record.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls will unveil a £218m expansion of Family Intervention Projects, designed to tackle problems such as drug abuse.

It will stop "bad behaviour spiralling into future offending", says Mr Balls.

The intention is stop youngsters graduating to more serious levels of bad behaviour, leading to anti-social behaviour orders and criminal records.

There will be 20 pilot projects launched over the next three years under the Youth Taskforce Action Plan - based on the model of the existing Family Intervention Projects.

Youngsters will sign up to a contract which will be monitored by an "assertive and persistent key worker" - and the policy announcement promises that the "support is non-negotiable".

The plan will "go further to tackle anti-social behaviour by making sure we take strong actions to tackle the underlying causes such as substance abuse and family breakdown," Mr Balls is due to say at the scheme's launch in east London on Tuesday.

"Recognising these problems doesn't condone bad behaviour - nor is it a soft option.

"In the end where young people and families don't accept help to change their behaviour then the right thing to do is to use Anti-social Behaviour Orders and Individual Support Orders."

Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said that "the best form of prevention is cure. We can spot early warning signs in young people and families where things are going wrong - poor parenting, lessons skipped and complaints about behaviour".

"To change, rather than just contain, we need tough action on the underlying problems," said the minister.

With thanks to BBC News: bbc.co.uk/news for this news item.