A number of programmes have been implemented designed, in part, to address risk factors such as the Sure Start programme. There are a limited number of preventive interventions with young people that have been robustly evaluated and these are mainly from the United States. The most well known is the Perry pre-school programme. They show very encouraging results both in terms of drug misuse and delinquency. They have been successful within specific social, economic and cultural contexts however. If their successes are to be reproduced in different sites outside the US there needs to be a careful assessment of the programme design in terms of specific local needs and conditions and a review of how such programmes would sit alongside other interventions. The local planning and delivery mechanisms for preventive work with young people are increasingly overseen by Children’s Trusts or by Children and Young People’s Strategy Groups. An important challenge for preventive work with young people has been how to move from broad preventive measures to more forensic interventions that can interrupt individual pathways towards risk behaviour. Implementing this within a framework of holistic programmes for young people generates a number of questions on the management of information about young people, particularly data sharing and questions of effectiveness in joint working. top image from istockphoto | 
