An initiative launched by the Ashfield Policing team to tackle the rise in young people's involvement in criminal activity, has seen major success stories in Hucknall.

The 'Youth Early Intervention Scheme' sees any young person involved in crimes, repeated anti-social behaviour or missing episodes, receive regular visits from the local Policing Team (NPT) to try to encourage them away from criminality.

The original scheme has been developed further and now other partners also assist in providing support. This includes Community Protection Officers (CPO) who visit offenders, and local clubs and charities who take referrals.

These visits and referrals have successfully built relationships between NPT officers and young people and helped develop their trust. The additional support from partners has allowed for education and diversion activities to be taken forward to provide young people a better understanding of risks, as well as productive activities to keep them occupied.

In Hucknall, two local males have made significant steps away from crime largely thanks to the scheme. One 17-year-old was involved in drug and weapon crime and has now stepped away from this and become a quasi-mentor for other young people. He was still prosecuted for his offences, however through the support and interventions he has not returned to crime.

The second male, a 16-year-old from Hucknall, was linked to knife crime in Nottingham city and involved in a fight in Ashfield involving weapons. He has now stopped going to Nottingham and has joined a local sporting club, he no longer associates with people who were involving him in crime and is now concentrating on developing his education for a career after school and college.

District Commander, Inspector Mark Dickson said: "A lot of young people can be drawn into criminality easily for a number of reasons. The Early Intervention scheme allows us to identify these people early, build engagement and hopefully divert them away from crime. This scheme is a small piece of a larger jigsaw of work we are doing around young people in the area.

"We are looking at various ways to prevent young people being drawn into crime, both to safeguard them now but also to reduce future crimes. We are delivering sessions at schools to educate youngsters around the risks of crime and how they are exploited, doing various community engagement events to build trust, and of course these intervention schemes.

"Of course, whilst we are looking at prevention, we will always look at enforcement options too when appropriate and work closely with Youth Offending Teams to manage this effectively."