Pubdate: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 Source: Independent (UK) Copyright: 2002 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd. Contact: http://www.independent.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209 Author: Ian Burrell, Home Affairs Correspondent CHILD PANELS TO IDENTIFY 'CRIMINALS OF THE FUTURE' The Government's chief adviser on youth crime outlined what he admitted were "controversial" plans yesterday to identify potential criminals among eight-year-olds. Lord Warner, chairman of the Youth Justice Board, said he accepted there would be fears that the children would become "stigmatised" but he claimed parents of unruly youngsters would welcome the idea. Children aged between eight and 13 would be identified by panels of professionals for displaying signs of problematic behaviour, including drugs use, poor mental health and family difficulties, he said. They and their families would then be given voluntary referral to the panel, directed to relevant services and allocated a key worker. Details of the plan emerged yesterday as the Government claimed that evaluation of an existing programme to give parenting classes to the mothers and fathers of unruly children had led to a fall in offending. In the 18 months to last December, the courts issued 2,194 Parenting Orders, under which parents of prolific offenders aged between 10 and 17 can be required to attend evening classes where they receive professional support and group therapy. Results from 34 projects involving 3,000 parents " a sixth of whom had been sent by the courts " showed that despite "initial reluctance by many", 90 per cent of parents would recommend the programme to others, said Lord Warner. "It shows that once parents are on the courses they eagerly sought help with dealing with their child's difficult behaviour, with providing parental discipline, and with encouraging their children to go to school," he said. Convictions of children whose parents attended the courses fell by about a third in the year after the programmes, while the number of offences recorded fell by a half in the same period, compared with the previous year. Lord Warner told the Association of Chief Police Officers' youth justice conference in Bristol yesterday that support would be extended to parents of even younger children. He said new Youth Inclusion and Support Panels, which will aim to identify potential serious offenders among eight to 13-year-olds, would be set up in the Government's 10 street crime hotspots. Lord Warner said: "It has to be acknowledged that there has been some controversy about these proposals. "There are those who fear that by targeting younger children we will be stigmatising or labelling them. But it is the strong view of the board that this is not about labelling young people but 'de-labelling' them." He added: "It is my experience that many families would welcome support with their children if only it was available at an earlier stage and before problems escalate." The panels will be made up of a range of experts including officers from local youth offending teams, police and representatives from schools, health and social services. Oliver Letwin, the shadow Home Secretary, said he welcomed proposals to "intervene at an early stage" but said children should be targeted when they began attending school at the ages of four and five. "The problems have already often become intractable by the age of eight," he said. The Home Office minister John Denham will tell the same conference today that social services staff, teachers and youth workers are not doing enough to tackle the problem of teenage gangs, leaving police to shoulder too much of the burden.