A national scheme to help stop Bury youngsters committing crimes has proven to be effective so far.

The three-year Turnaround project was rolled out in the borough in January and has worked with 23 people who staff have "successfully worked with" and they "have not entered the criminal justice system".

They had been selected for support after being "assessed as eligible and supported through an early help prevention plan", a scrutiny report from the council's cabinet member for children and young people, Cllr Lucy Smith, states.

The youth justice shared service for Rochdale and Bury is managed by Rochdale apart from the prevention element, which is managed through Bury’s early help division.

Staff also work with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to tackle serious crime.

Figures show that "first time entrants into the criminal justice system" have risen across Bury and Rochdale from a low of 147 in April to March 20/21 to 169 in 22/23. That is above the England average of 148 but below the Greater Manchester average of 180.

There has been a change in the youth justice team since April with prevention officers moving into a new family resource service to "build further capacity in the offer specific to adolescents".

A number of priorities have been set to help prevent youngsters becoming involved in crime such as improving pathways to support and boosting data sharing.

The Bury and Rochdale Youth Justice Annual Plan has also identified a number of risks such as budget constraints, an increase in remand bed nights, ensuring young people "have a voice" and concerns over more youths being arrested by police.

Action is being taken to tackle these potential problems.

The scrutiny report adds: "As we move through 2023 the Turnaround programme and outcomes framework will support us to develop a better understanding of young people on the edge of crime and the impact of our interventions on young people’s outcomes.

"With the alignment of the prevention workers with our wider adolescent offer we are well placed to ensure a more coherent and creative approach across both individual and wider community support.

"The youth justice plan 2023/24 provides a framework to develop an holistic approach across Rochdale and Bury with appropriate governance to test our success and understand the improvements we are making for our young people."