Source: City of Plymouth
Plymouth City Council’s Youth Justice Service has received outstanding recognition from the Ministry of Justice for their exceptional performance in delivering the Turnaround Programme, earning praise for their ‘dedication, professionalism and commitment to improving outcomes for children and their families’.
The service has been congratulated for successfully diverting children from the youth justice system through innovative early intervention and prevention work that focuses on building meaningful relationships with young people to help them understand healthy relationships, peer dynamics, and the impact of their actions on victims.
The Turnaround Programme focuses on early intervention and prevention work, which includes relationship building with children to understand healthy relationships, peer relationships, impact on victims, and understanding reasons why children display concerning behaviour and become in conflict with the law.
It diverts children from the youth justice system at the earliest opportunity. The programme forms part of the wider early help and targeted support offer from Plymouth City Council’s Children’s Services team.
The success has been remarkable, with the team not only working with the required number of children but being oversubscribed due to the exceptional value of their interventions. The Ministry of Justice contacted the service directly to congratulate staff on their innovative and creative approach to this vital work.
Councillor Jemima Laing, Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, said: “The programme is helping to achieve positive outcomes for children with the aim of preventing them going on to offend.
“It helps build on work already done to ensure all children on the cusp of the youth justice system are consistently offered the opportunity for support.
“This work is crucial, and due to Plymouth’s contribution, the Ministry of Justice has exceeded its aim to support just over 17,000 children and young people in the UK over the past three years and there have already been some significant and positive changes achieved for communities.
“I would like to congratulate the service, and to be recognised by the Ministry of Justice is a huge achievement, it shines a light on all of the great work they are doing to help our young people on to the right path.”