Sponsored by
Courses for families to tackle yob culture
by ALISON BELLAMY ANTI-social families in Leeds are to be offered courses and training in a bid to stop yobbish behaviour.
Leeds is one of 50 towns and cities in the UK to benefit from the Government's Intensive Family Support Scheme.
It aims to bring together an "all-agency approach" to tackling the problem.
It is hoped the intensive scheme will be a success alongside the introduction of parenting orders, which come into force in January.
Families who have children in the early stages of anti-social behaviour will be targeted as being in need of support. Parents will attend classes and learn how to deal with unruly youngsters.
The intensive support scheme is designed to help families who are perpetrators of persistent, high-level anti-social behaviour.
Causes
The aim is to break the cycle of poor behaviour by tackling the many underlying causes through work with families in their own homes or in a residential unit.
Support plans specific to the families' needs are drawn up.
They include financial advice, anger management, and parenting support.
Alex Rhind, from the Home Office Respect Task Force, spoke yesterday at the Anti-Social Behaviour Conference, arranged by Leeds Tenants Federation.
She said: "We would all love to live in Utopia but that is not realistic. We all have to stand up and say that this behaviour is not acceptable in our neighbourhoods.
"In many families there is disadvantage such as poverty, ill health, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence. In some families, all exist."
She said Leeds is also one of 77 areas in Britain to get a parenting expert, dubbed a 'super nanny', who will oversee the parenting orders, which the council will apply for against anyone it sees as not being a responsible parent.
More than 100 people attended the conference at the Thackray Medical Museum where Supt Richard Jackson, the community safety officer for Leeds, backed calls for the public to work with police, council and support agencies.
Supt Jackson said: "Enforcement does have a role, but preventative work will stop the cycle of re-offending effectively."
alison.bellamy@ypn.co.uk
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Blackpool
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 25 mph
Wind direction: West
