Dr Liz Malcolm, an educational psychologist, was commissioned by Chris Walker, principal psychologist with Luton Education Service, to undertake research to bolster the argument for an educational psychologist to work within the youth offending service. The researchers looked at the early school and life experiences of young people in the Luton area to see if certain factors and conditions predisposed them to crime and then considered what could be done to prevent this happening.
Ms Walker said, 'We found that parents often raised questions about managing their children at the age of four or five, but schools told them they were "fine". Slowly people would realise that something was wrong with a child, but by then parents had lost confidence in the system.
'Agencies were not collaborating and the response to issues was short-term, instead of looking at future implications. When you look back over the lives of many young offenders, you often wonder "if only".'
The findings showed that psychologically based interventions made by multi-agencies, which were tailored to young people's individual needs, could help them avoid problems later. Ms Walker said that until recently, Government regulations stipulated that the youth offending service could only call in an educational psychologist once a young person had offended, but that she hoped a more preventative approach would be adopted from this April.