Tired of hanging around: Using sport and leisure activities to prevent anti-social behaviour by young people, finds that sport and leisure projects involving music, film-making or football, when designed in consultation with young people, can help stop them from drifting into anti-social behaviour. But these projects struggle with a funding system that is wasteful, inefficient and bureaucratic. Youth workers, who should be devoting their attention to young people, can spend a third of their time managing budgets and chasing new funding. Even when funding is secured, it is often fixed and short-term, with no guarantee of renewal.
The report sets out recommendations for councils working with their local strategic partnerships, and for central government, to encourage improvements in the design of projects and the funding systems that are fundamental to their success.
We have also published a suite of tools including a video featuring successful projects to help councils and their partners respond to the report's recommendations:
Video
A short video summarising the report's key messages and highlights from some of its case studies
A transcript of this video (PDF, 24kb) is also available.
The national report identifies a number of examples of councils and public and private sector partners working together to tackle anti-social behaviour through sport, leisure and developmental activities. The series of short films illustrate the challenges and successes of some of these projects, helping other councils and their partners to learn from their experiences.
If you would like to request a hard copy of the DVD please call 0800 50 20 30.
Contact details
For more information on the study please contact the study manager, Emma Belton on 0844 798 1117 or by email at e-belton@audit-commission.gov.uk.