Nursery World - Spot the offenders at pre-school, staff told

Staff in pre-school care and education centres throughout Scotland are to be asked to monitor and identify children for signs that they may later engage in criminal behaviour, under plans in the Scottish Executive's Action Programme to Reduce Youth Crime 2002 published last week. Staff will be asked to contribute to what the Action Programme describes as 'the development and co-ordination of databases to identify, at an early stage, children and young people who are at risk of offending.' The databases are to be held by multi-agency youth offending teams set up in every local authority over the past year.

Staff will be asked to contribute to what the Action Programme describes as 'the development and co-ordination of databases to identify, at an early stage, children and young people who are at risk of offending.' The databases are to be held by multi-agency youth offending teams set up in every local authority over the past year.

The Scottish Executive is also currently assessing the need for training materials, such as booklets and CD-Roms, which would spell out the factors that put children at risk from an early age of turning into criminals. A Scottish Executive spokesperson said that these might include displays of aggressive anti-social behaviour and hyperactivity; harsh or neglectful parenting; separation from parenting and offending by parents and siblings.

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