Turnaround Programme
Source: gov.uk (2025-04-01)

Turnaround is a youth early intervention programme led by the Ministry of Justice.

Turnaround is a youth early intervention programme led by the Ministry of Justice. It is a c.£71 million programme providing multi-year funding to Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) across England and Wales until March 2026, enabling them to intervene earlier and improve outcomes for children on the cusp of entering the youth justice system. This additional funding will enable YOTs to support children who they currently do not work with - up to 20,500 more children across England and Wales.

The programme entered delivery in December 2022. It is scheduled to run until March 2026.

Early intervention and prevention are at the heart of the government’s Safer Streets mission (https://www.gov.uk/missions/safer-streets), which includes commitments to halve knife crime in a decade and to intervene earlier to stop young people being drawn into crime, as well as cracking down on anti-social behaviour. Turnaround aligns with these commitments. Turnaround has built on the success of the Supporting Families programme, which showed the benefits of working with children and their families to meet needs through holistic support delivered by joined-up local services.

Eligibility

Turnaround takes referrals from police and other partners for children aged 10-17 who are:

noticed by agencies with enforcement powers for repeated involvement in anti-social behaviour (ASB);
- Community Protection Warning/Notice (CPW/N);
- Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC);
- Civil Order for ASB;
in receipt of Community Protection Orders (CPO), Civil Order and/or Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC) for anti-social behaviour;

interviewed under caution following arrest, or subject to a criminal investigation attending a voluntary interview;

subject to a No Further Action (NFA) decision (including Outcome 22);

subject to a Community Resolution (Outcome 8);

receiving a first-time youth caution, not including a conditional caution;

released under investigation (RUI) or subject to pre-charge bail (PCB);

discharged by a court;

acquitted at court; and/or
- fined by a court.
Assessment and support

Although there is no single path to youth offending, there are certain needs and vulnerabilities associated with a child having an increased likelihood of being in contact with the youth justice system or becoming involved in offending behaviour. These include:
- Mental health concerns
- Substance misuse
- Having experience of the care system
- Being a victim of crime/ abuse
- Unstable family setting
- School absence and exclusions
- Undiagnosed educational needs
YOTs can use Turnaround funding to offer children and their families an Early Help style assessment to address needs and to build on individual strengths, with the aim of preventing them going on to offend or reoffend. Children and families are involved in decisions about the support and interventions they receive.

The programme recognises that YOTs best understand the needs of children in their local area and deliberately gives them the flexibility to decide which interventions should be used, provided these are evidence-based.

The programme is voluntary. Eligible children do not have to admit guilt to receive support. This voluntary aspect should help traditionally hard-to-reach children get the support they need and prevent an escalation to offending or reoffending.

Futher information

On programme delivery – Management information on Turnaround delivery January to December 2023 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/671bc9e51037a76fc9903e66/Signed_off_Turnaround_programme_year_one_management_information__web__1_.pdf)

On how Turnaround is operating in your area you can contact the relevant Youth Offending Team using these contact details (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/youth-offending-team-contact-details).