A PROJECT in Glenrothes backed by the Scottish Office which was designed to reduce the number of persistent juvenile offenders has had some impact on the young people who completed the programme - but only 40 per cent stayed the course.
An evaluation of the three-year CueTen project, carried out by Lancaster University researchers, found that the 26-week programme was too demanding for the rest, who were mostly aged 15. Those who stayed from beginning to end tended to have been charged less frequently in the previous 12 months.
Most of the offences committed by the 86 offenders involved dishonesty, minor assaults, public order offences, fire-raising and vandalism.
The project, managed by Apex Scotland, was set up to reduce offending by changing attitudes to training and employment.
