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Overall youth crime remains stable but challenges remain particularly around alcohol-related crime, delinquent peer groups and gangs and young people carrying knives. Each year around 100,000 young people aged 10 -17 enter the criminal justice system for the first time. The new Action Plan aims to reduce this rate by one fifth by 2020 and in turn to substantially reduce the number of young victims.

The £100 million Youth Crime Action Plan sets out a comprehensive package of tough enforcement and intensive prevention measures as well as more support for parents to tackle offending and reduce re-offending. The range of measures announced today includes:

Better prevention and support for victims

• an expansion of the successful family intervention projects to 20,000 families
• increasing the proportion of ASBOs accompanied by a parenting order
• expanding safer schools partnerships
• expanding provision of youth centres and other activities at times when young people are likely to offend, including Friday and Saturday nights
• making permanent exclusion from school an automatic trigger to a comprehensive assessment of needs
• expansion of family nurse partnerships
• innovative ways to support young victims and improving support to witnesses when they attend court.

Tough enforcement

• using safeguarding legislation to remove at-risk children and young people from the streets late at night
• greater use of existing police enforcement tactics, including measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and underage drinking;
• new police enforcement tactics to ensure visible patrols during after-school hours
• street-based teams of youth workers and ex-gang members to tackle groups of young people involved in crime and disorder.

More visible and effective sentencing

• better cross agency coordination to identify and target prolific offenders
• giving the community the opportunity to say what type of reparation work they want young people on community sentences to undertake, and making them feel the consequences of their actions by requiring them to undertake this work on Friday and Saturday nights
• piloting court reviews of high-risk young offenders on community sentences
• setting out for the first time principles for the use of custody for young people.

Reducing re-offending

• a new duty on local authorities to fund and commission education of young offenders in custody
• developing a more comprehensive package of support for young people leaving custody
• ensure access to suitable accommodation and health services for all young offenders leaving custody.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "Youth Crime can have a devastating effect on victims and communities and must be tackled head-on. Today I want to send the message to perpetrators that their actions are unacceptable. They must understand the consequences their behaviour has not only on victims and communities but on their families and their futures.

"I want to call on parents to play their part. Tough enforcement and policing is only one part of the solution. The new action we are launching today gives equal weight to the triple-track approach of intensive prevention, tough enforcement and support for parents."

Further information

The Youth Crime Action Plan can be found on the Home Office website.

• Youth Crime Action Plan Opens new window