Nottingham's Youth Offending Team, the partnership of City Council, Police, Probation Service, Health and Connexions, has been recognised as among the top performing in the country. It is one of the top five in the country for cutting re-offending among children and young people since 2005.

Latest figures show:

a 24 per cent reduction in the number of new young offenders in Nottingham since 2005/2006, well above the national average and second only to Leeds among the eight Core Cities that also include Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle.

In the 12 months from September2007 there has been a 29 per cent fall in the number of children in care who offended and a drop in the over-representation of young Black or Black British people in the youth justice system.

There has been a big increase in the number of young people supervised by Nottingham Youth Offending Team who are in full-time education, training and employment.

The figures show that Nottingham is one of only five areas to see a reduction of more than 5 per cent in youth re-offending within 12 months among young people dealt with by the Courts, based on the period between October and December 2005.

To help maintain the momentum, the Youth Offending Team Board has commissioned an analysis of youth crime in Nottingham by the Institute of Criminal Policy Research at London University. It will look in detail at why young people turn to crime and what works in turning young people away from crime. Its findings will develop future policies and work.

The City Council has increased its contribution to the YOT by £100,000 for 2008, with additional funding contributions from Nottingham Primary Care Trust and the Police.

Councillor David Mellen, Nottingham City Council's Portfolio holder for Children's Services, said the results of Nottingham's Youth Offending Team is well above the national average and is one of the best among the Core Cities.

"Given Nottingham's status as Early Intervention City and the city's recent track record in reducing overall crime figures, we are well placed to implement targeted early intervention to tackle youth crime and anti-social behaviour.

"The Youth Justice Plan and the work of the Youth Offending Team links up with all the other targeted youth work that takes place. Our aim is to attract young people to join in the wide range of positive activities that are on offer across Nottingham and want to keep them away from the streets. Youth inclusions programmes are an important element of this work.

"The drop in the numbers of young people going to Court or re-offending shows that the culmination of this work with young people is having an effect and the research Nottingham has commissioned will help future work to continue this downward trend."

The main focus of Nottingham City Council’s Youth Justice Plan for the next 12 months is a further reduction in youth offending, greater safety and security for Nottingham communities and more opportunities for the City's children and young people.

There will be full use of a new Youth Rehabilitation Order to replace most existing youth justice sentences and a scaled response that ensures time and resources are directed towards young people according to risk, with a multi-agency Youth Crime Prevention Strategy in place within six months.