Newcastle one of 20 cities to get funding to help challenging young people 28 October 03

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Newcastle is one of 20 areas to be given a share of £13 to help them to set up Intensive Intervention Projects that will challenge and support youngsters in trouble, Beverley Hughes Children and Young People’s Minister announced today on a visit to Haringey, one of the successful areas.

Evidence has shown that these types of projects are effective in turning around the lives of young people and their families through a highly targeted package that will both challenge young people – and their parents if necessary – to do better, as well as support them in overcoming their problems. The projects will be set up in 20 areas across the country between 2008/09 – 2010/11 meaning that up to 3000 young people are expected to benefit in total by the end of this period.

Beverley Hughes, Children and Young People’s Minister, said “These projects aim to help parents who often don’t know where to go or who to turn to next to help them tackle the problem behaviour of their child. They are sometimes unable to get the support and help they need from local services.

“The focus of these projects is on prevention and support. It’s non-negotiable and so we will intervene early to stop young people getting into a situation where their bad behaviour can spiral out of control and enforcement has to be used. But where enforcement is necessary it will be used and that will be made clear from the outset if young people don’t cooperate.”