Respect Action Plan

The Respect Action Plan (January 2006) broadens the government's approach to tackling antisocial behaviour. It promotes early intervention to prevent children and young people getting involved in antisocial behaviour. It also addresses the behaviour of the most challenging families.

The plan combines strong local enforcement action where necessary with tailored support for individuals and families to address the underlying causes of antisocial behaviour.

The cross-government plan is consistent with the aims and principles of Every Child Matters and Youth Matters. We know that children and young people who engage in antisocial behaviour, or whose families engage in antisocial behaviour, are likely to experience a range of negative outcomes and problems. Furthermore, when children and young people become involved in antisocial behaviour or crime, it is often other children and young people who suffer.

One year on

To mark one year on from the publication of the Respect Action Plan, in January 2007 the government published The Respect Handbook - A Guide for Local Services. The Respect Handbook identifies the key principles that underpin the programme. It includes information on support for parents, the role of schools, and the role of children and young people's services in meeting the objectives.

The handbook shows how the Respect programme and action to tackle antisocial behaviour can help a wide range of partners - including  schools, and children and young people's services - to deliver on their own objectives, even where this may not be immediately obvious.

Six areas of focus

The Respect Action Plan has six main strands:

• Activities for children and young people
  
  
• Improving behaviour and attendance in schools
  
  
• Supporting families
  
  
• A new approach to the most challenging families
  
  
• Strengthening communities
  
  
• Effective enforcement and community justice

The following three areas of the Respect agenda are particularly relevant to Every Child Matters and Youth Matters:

Providing constructive activities and opportunities for young people to make a positive contribution

Activity that will help achieve this includes:

• Piloting Youth Opportunity Cards in a number of areas
  
  
• The Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund for young people to establish their own projects and improve local activities
  
  
• A national youth volunteering service
  
  
• Piloting peer mentoring in secondary schools

Click for more on Youth Matters.

Tackling poor attendance and behaviour both inside and outside the classroom

Activity that will help achieve this includes:

• New legislation to tackle poor behaviour, providing a clear statutory power for school staff to discipline pupils
  
  
• Rolling out behaviour and truancy partnerships in secondary schools by September 2007
  
  
• Targeted action on persistent absenteeism
  
  
• Preventing informal and unofficial exclusions
  
  
• Taking action to identify children missing education
  
  
• New measures to deal with suspended and excluded pupils, including:
  
  
  • a new offence for parents where an excluded pupil is found in a public place during school hours without reasonable excuse
    
    
  • ensuring that schools and local authorities make full-time educational provision available to excluded pupils

Click for more on behaviour and children missing education.

Supporting parents and families

Measures that help parents include: 

• Rolling out children's centres and extended schools, which will provide universal access to parenting support
  
  
• Piloting the role of parent support advisers
  
  
• Improving local authority delivery of parenting support and investing in wider use of parenting programmes that have been shown to be effective
  
  
• Establishing a National Academy for Parenting Practitioners for training those who work with parents
  
  
• Providing additional support to teenage parents
  
  
• Legislating to extend the use of parenting orders and enable the earlier use of parenting contracts

Click for more on parents, carers and families.

Documents and further information

The Respect Action Plan and the Respect Handbook are available from the Respect website.