4Children in partnership with Barnardo's

The UK increasingly locks up more children and young people than any other Western European nation, but the system is failing against critical tests of reducing reoffending and dealing with the causes of offending.

The challenge for policy makers is to make the positive case for an alternative approach based on working with young people and their families to take responsibility for their actions and providing the support needed for them to address the often chaotic and complex realities of their lives.

A new approach needs to help develop the skills required to improve the future possibilities for these young people and to bring stability via education, employment or housing - and to evidence these improvements if we are to have a system which engenders public confidence.

Published July 2008

Click the download button below to view the pamphlet.

View the press release here.

Other pamphlets in the series:
The Battle to Engage - Oona King 
Still Home Alone? - Karen Buck MP 
Free Range Childhoods - 4Children
Turning Up the Volume on Child Poverty - Rt. Hon. Ed Balls MP, Michael Gove MP, David Laws MP
For All Ages - 4Children in partnership with Counsel and Care