OVER 2,000 teenage offenders have been helped to maintain their family ties under a pioneering scheme developed at a local prison.

Hindley Prison developed the scheme in partnership with POPS, a support group for partners of prisoners and their families. It is one of the projects being featured at an event at Bolton's Reebok Stadium to launch the North West Reducing Re-offending Action Plan and the Local Government Association guide to tackling re-offending, 'Going Straight'.

The presentation was given last Friday by Angela Boland, a family link worker at the prison who interviews offenders aged 15 to 18 on their arrival at Hindley.

An information pack is then mailed out to families within 24 hours, explaining details of visiting arrangements and other support systems offered by the prison and providing a contact for queries. Around 150 prisoners are now referred to the project each month.

Angela said: "Some of the young people arrive here after being homeless or in local authority care and on countless occasions the information pack has put them back in touch with their families."

The conference highlighted a range of measures that are being used to put offenders back on the straight and narrow.

These cover key areas crucial to their chances of living crime-free lives on release including education, employment, healthcare and family support.

Liz Hill, Regional Offender Manager of the National Offender Management Service, said: "There has already been a lot of innovative work on reducing

re-offending carried out in the North West and we will be looking at some of the best examples of that work in the areas which most influence an offender's chances of going straight.

"Success is down to good partnership working between the statutory and voluntary agencies and Friday's event also highlights the very important role of local authorities in this collaborative approach."