Community Safety and Youth Justice

Our services

The National Youth Agency has the expertise, knowledge and experience to provide a range of services to practitioners in all youth justice and community safety agencies. In particular, we provide the following services:

• Bespoke Consultancy

 The NYA has expert knowledge about youth justice and youth work related crime reduction and can offer bespoke packages of consultancy support to your organisation or service.

• Advice and expertise

The NYA can provide support for Local Authorities, Police Authorities, Youth Offending Services and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in developing effective approaches to reducing crime and disorder, anti social behaviour and improving community safety by involving young people in planning and delivering strategic and operational priorities.

• Training

The NYA can help you to build the voice of young people into planning and decision making, through training and consultancy on the active involvement of young people through Hear By Right and Act By Right; national standard frameworks developed by The NYA.

• Research

The NYA can coordinate and facilitate your consultation with young people via surveys, focus groups or large scale consultation events. The NYA has extensive experience of undertaking consultation with young people in a variety of settings and for a variety of purposes and can deliver the research findings in a format to meet the needs of your organisation and young people.

• Monitoring and Evaluation

The NYA can provide your organisation with independent monitoring and evaluation of youth justice and youth work projects and programmes.

Contact

For more information about NYA youth justice and community safety services and publications please contact: youthjustice@nya.org.uk

Recent and Current Work

• Young People’s Voice and Influence within the Youth Justice System

During 2009/10 the NYA has been commissioned by the Local Government Association to develop resources and guidance on the involvement of young people in the youth justice system and how this the involvement of young people leads to service changes and reform.

The NYA provides regular training and consultancy support to youth justice organisations to help implement the Hear by Right standards framework to enable them to map and plan for greater involvement of young people in their service planning and delivery.

Find out more about Hear by Right >>

• Positive Activities for Young People

During 2008/9, the NYA supported the Department Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) pilot Extended Positive Activities for Young People (EPAYP) programme aimed at diverting those young people at risk of or involved in gangs and street violence. The NYA provided support to the 15 pilot sites: Birmingham, Bristol, Croydon, Greenwich, Hackney, Haringey, Lambeth, Leeds, Lewisham, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Southwark and Trafford) to help each area increase the impact of the additional funding.

In 2009, we produced a report outlining the findings from this work along with recommendations for future Positive Activities funding and practice.

• Creating a Sense of Belonging

In 2009, we also produced a project database of all the Extended Positive Activities for Young People projects from the 15 pilot areas. This report captures some of the excellent Positive Activities as well as some being case studies being delivered across the country.

Creating a sense of belonging - Local Authority Summary Report

• Guns, Gangs and Knife Crime

In 2008, the NYA, along with the Association of Principal Youth and Community Officers and the Speaking Out Project (NCVCCO and NCVYS) jointly organised a national round table event to discuss how to combat knife, gun and gang crime, and how this should be taken forward with policy makers. The round table event focused on developing solutions and the need to take concerted action at both national and local levels and put forward a number of recommendations detailed in the report.

Gang, gun and knife crime round table (May 2008)

• Youth Crime Consultation

Recently Warwickshire Police Authority and West Midlands Police Authority commissioned the NYA to undertake further consultation with young people about their views and experiences of crime, gangs and violent extremism and the criminal justice system. For more information about this current work email: youthjustice@nya.org.uk

In 2008, we hosted a West Midlands Regional Youth Crime Conference on behalf of the West Midlands Police Authority and Local Criminal Justice Board. Using a variety of creative workshop methods and facilitated by young people, 150 young people participated including many from hard to reach groups. This report provides a detailed account of the event and young people’s views and experiences of anti social behaviour; gangs and street violence; personal safety; violent extremism; and their perceptions and experiences of local criminal justice agencies, including the police.

Listening to Young People - Police report (June 2009)

Listening to You – Young People’s Report (2009)

In 2007, we were commissioned by West Midlands Police Authority to undertake consultation with young people to gain their perceptions and experiences about personal safety and policing to inform their strategic plans. The report published in early 2008 summarises the key findings and recommendations from the 10 focus groups held with young people from across the West Midlands region.

West Midlands Police Authority - The Police Your Views, 2008

Useful links

The National Youth Agency is a member of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice, this coalition works to promote the welfare of children who become engaged in the youth justice system and advocates for a child-focused youth justice system that promotes the integration of such children into society and thus serves the best interests of the children themselves and the community at large.