Help for vulnerable young people

We work in partnership across the county to help boost the resilience of young people at risk of child criminal exploitation or in need of a clearer direction in life.

Positive Futures has come to fruition thanks to support from the Premier League and Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk (OPCCN), and Norfolk County Council Children’s Services, and is divided into two strands – ‘Protect’ and ‘Prepare’.

‘Protect’ is a preventative programme aimed at 11 to 13-year-olds who show signs of risk such as persistent absence from school, difficult personal relationships, a significant decline in school results or concerns with their emotional well-being.

“Prepare’ offers targeted intervention for pupils in Year 10 whose emotional resilience and self-esteem may have been affected by anxiety and stress at a crucial time in their lives.

“The programme has been really good to be a part of, it has helped me understand my feelings and how to talk about how I feel with other people.”

“I’m learning a lot about my own and others mental wellbeing. It’s a fun way of learning and teaching me things I didn’t know much about before.”

Quotes from young people taking part in the programme.

Norfolk Youth Offending Team

Norfolk Youth Offending Team (YOT) is a partnership of local experts from policing, health, children’s services and probation whose aim it is to prevent children and young people from offending, helping them to restore the damage caused by their actions and achieve their potential.

The PCC provides funding to Norfolk YOT to fund activity to reduce the number of Norfolk youngsters entering the criminal justice system for the first-time, re-offending and receiving custodial sentences.

More information about the Norfolk Youth Offending Team

“Norfolk Youth Offending Team is committed to helping young people achieve their full potential and lead pro-social lives by providing support and positive activities.  Partnership funding is central to our provision.  Recent activities such as sailing trips and drama workshops have resulted in some of our young people going on to achieve things they never thought possible. This brings not only better outcomes for individual young people but for our communities too.”

Claire Winchester, Area Manager for King’s Lynn and Great Yarmouth units at Norfolk YOT.

The Child and Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse (CAPVA) Project – Two-year pilot (April 2023-March-2025)

The CAPVA pilot has been funded by The Home Office’s Perpetrator fund and is managed by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The funding has been used to provide specialist support to families affected by CAPVA using a partnership approach between the following agencies:

The Norfolk Youth Justice Service (NYJS)
Norfolk County Council’s Children’s Services (NCS)
Norfolk Constabulary, Norfolk Integrated Domestic Abuse Services (NIDAS; managed by Leeway)
Brave Futures
Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk (OPCCN)

For more information about this pilot, please click on the accordion button in the section below.

This supports the aims as set out in the Government’s Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (VAWG) and by the county’s wider safeguarding system. It will ensure statutory and non-statutory partners work together effectively to identify and support children and young people who both exhibit and experience harmful behaviours. It will remove the barrier for families to disclose CAPVA and to get the tailored support they need from specialist practitioners and support services.

Over fifty practitioners across Children’s Services, Norfolk Youth Justice and NIDAS have been trained to deliver Respect’s accredited intervention ‘The Respect Young Peoples Programme’ also known as the RYPP. This intervention is for families where children or young people aged 8-18 are abusive or violent towards their parents/guardian (including, biological parents, stepparents, foster parents/adoptive/kinship carers). This abuse may be physical, verbal, financial, sexual, coercive, controlling, emotional, damage to property, threats of violence or to cause damage.

The Respect Young People’s Programme (RYPP)

The RYPP involves eighteen sessions (individual sessions with the young person, their parent/guardian, and joint sessions together). The programme is voluntary, and both the young person and their parent/guardian must consent to take part and be willing to engage. The programme encourages everyone to take a role in stopping the abuse and learning respectful ways of managing conflict, difficulty, and intimacy.

RYPP practitioners provide support, insight, and simple solutions to help to improve family relationships via weekly structured sessions and takes approximately three or more months to complete. Sessions are varied and use a variety of creative tools and techniques, underpinned by theoretical models – primarily social learning theory, cognitive behavioural approaches, restorative justice, and conflict resolution.

The RYPP is recognised by the Youth Justice Board Effective Practice Unit and has been awarded the Restorative Justice Council's Quality Mark.

Referral routes

As this is a pilot project, there are only three referral pathways currently in operation:

Children’s services
Youth Justice
NIDAS (Norfolk Integrated Domestic Abuse Service)

The CAPVA project funding will also allow up to eighteen children per year to access specialist therapeutic support through partner organisation Brave Futures. Referrals are identified and made by NIDAS directly to Brave Futures (only).

Project Aims

There will be an independent academic evaluation of the CAPVA Project. This will build upon the evidence base, identify best practice, and inform the future sustainability of this project.

The anticipated outcomes of the project are to:

Reduce verbal aggression, severity of violence and abuse in close relationships.
Improve emotional well-being (coping with anxiety, anger, depression, emotional self-regulation), inclusive or therapeutic and clinical support offers for children/adolescents.
Improve family communication, relationships, and feelings of safety for all.
Build parenting confidence and skills by a trained workforce who are supported and supervised by a nationally accredited organisation.
Increase the children/adolescent’s insight to their own behaviour and reduce their risk to others.

For more information, please contact the CAPVA Project Manager: Mairead.Bagguley@norfolk.police.uk