Bid to halt crimes by children in care (From Worcester News)

Bid to halt crimes by children in care

8:00am Wednesday 13th February 2008 in News

GUIDELINES aimed at reducing the number of children in Worcestershire's residential care system committing crimes have been launched in Worcester.

The restorative approaches protocol, which provides guidelines for care home staff to follow when trouble occurs, has been devised to resolve conflicts without having to introduce youngsters into the criminal justice system.

Following the launch, where it was signed by different partners, Fiona Allen, restorative justice officer for Worcestershire and Herefordshire Youth Offending Service, said: "The event featured a short film of one young person who has been in the care system for a long time who felt that these approaches would have made a difference to her experience.

"Another young person said, I'ts hard enough to have to live in a unit, away from your own family, without getting a criminal record when things go wrong'."

She said: "The protocol aims to reduce both the number of offences and of offenders in local authority residential care. While incidents such as assault and criminal damage will inevitably occur when working with these challenging and vulnerable young people, in cases other than an emergency, police involvement doesn't have to be the first or only response.

"Restorative approaches focus on relationships and how to put things right, to reduce the fear and likelihood of it happening again."

The protocol, which has been signed by representatives from the Youth Offending Service, Crown Prosecution Service, West Mercia Constabulary and Children's Services, involves training staff in homes to use restorative practices' to resolve problems, such as dialogue between the offender and the victim or the youth writing a letter of apology.