The number of crimes and incidents involving children in residential care in Derry has halved over the last six months since the introduction of a scheme jointly run by the police and the Foyle Health and Social Services Trust.
As a result of the scheme, the first of its kind in Northern Ireland, crimes committed by teenagers in care such as offences against the person, theft, criminal damage to property; disturbances, missing persons reports and the number of incidents requiring police attention in children's homes have all been reduced by just over 50 per cent.
In the six months before the scheme was introduced, police were called out 486 times to Derry's six children's homes run by the trust. In the last six months that figure has dropped to 239. Crimes in the homes have also halved, and the number of children who absconded from the homes in the last six months has dropped to 202 compared with 407 for the last six months of last year. "Quite simply what we have called the Joint Protocol Agreement between ourselves and the PSNI has been an outstanding success in which everyone, the children, the staff, the police and the community, has been a winner," said Mr Pat Armstrong, the trust's Children Care Service assistant principal social worker.
"The scheme, which basically boils down to improving communication and exchanging information between ourselves and the police has been incredibly successful. The children we are dealing with are aged between 13 and 16, all of whom for one reason or another are vulnerable."