Intensive support and monitoring

The Scottish Executive supports the expansion of intensive community-based initiatives which look to deal with offending behaviour and anti-social attitudes amongst young people. These services range from prevention and diversionary projects for those on the periphery of offending, through to intensive support and supervision for our most dangerous and disruptive young people.

Local Authority youth justice teams have been handed the responsibility of ensuring that effective, evidence-based services are being delivered which meet the needs of particular areas. This aim can be achieved either through the delivery of services direct from local authority youth justice practitioners or through the commissioning of services from the many voluntary organisations involved in the system.

In addition, the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act provides a range of new powers designed to deal specifically with those young people involved in nuisance behaviour for whom existing measures have proved ineffective. One of the new measures to be introduced provides children's hearings with the power to impose conditions restricting the movement of a young person, where that young person meets the criteria for secure accommodation.

Remote monitoring conditions will be applied where the hearings believe it will help stop persistent offending, or if the welfare needs of the child could be addressed through a tag. This condition can help to restrict young people to, or away from, certain locations at particular times. Where it is agreed that a tag is the best course of action an intensive community based service covering all of the young persons needs will be put in place to support these arrangements, creating an intensive Support and Monitoring Service (ISMS).