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A leading youth justice professional questioned the ability of mainstream services to target young people at risk of offending.

Bob Ashford, head of prevention at the Youth Justice Board, told the conference that mainstream agencies had a role in carrying out targeted preventive work with these young people but that a lack of resources might sometimes prevent this.

"The mainstream agencies failed to do so in the past and I still have concerns about their ability to do so now," he said. "I would question their ability to provide any kind of preventive youth crime services."

He said that there would always be a role for specialist services to target this group.