Thousands of pounds awarded to tackle anti-social behaviour across South Yorkshire

Funding of £500,000 has been awarded to South Yorkshire from the Home Office’s Serious Violence Youth Interventions Fund to deliver a Multisystemic Therapy programme.

The programme will run across South Yorkshire and aims to break the cycle of anti-social behaviours by keeping young people safely at home, in school, and out of trouble.

It will work with young people aged between 10 and 17 to identify those most at risk of being placed into Local Authority Care or at risk of custody.

Graham Jones, head of the South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit, said: “This is fantastic news to be awarded this funding at a time when everyone needs to be working together to help and support young people.

“The South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit have supported this bid from Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council and Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council due to the quality of the interventions and the evidence base on how MST works with young people, steering them away from crime.”

Multisystemic Therapy is an intensive family and community-based intervention that targets the multiple causes of anti-social behaviour in young people.

MST adopts a social-ecological approach to understanding problematic behaviours in young people, viewing the individual as being surrounded by a network of interconnected systems that include the young person themselves, their family as well as their peer group, school and wider neighbourhood.

Parents and caregivers are the main instigators of change in the young person, so the programme aims to improve family relationships, encourage more young people to engage positively with education and training and ultimately reduce young people’s offending.

Dr Alan Billings, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, said: “We realise increasingly that if we are to reduce crime in society we must do more to help young people keep away from anti-social behaviour and to learn how to respond better to the community in which they live.

“We also realise that young people are surrounded all the time by other people, including their family, who are also key to their becoming mature and responsible adults.

“This therapeutic approach is a proven way of making a significant difference early in people’s lives. I strongly support this project and believe it will have an important and long-lasting impact on the lives of many young people in Doncaster and Rotherham.”

The funding will allow the programme to run across Doncaster and Rotherham, and similar interventions are already available in Barnsley and Sheffield.