Young people complained to the police liaison in school that although the police said they wanted to work with young people there were no opportunities to. We set up a meeting and decided to try a pilot that ran along the same lines as neighbourhood watch.

Young people were asked to volunteer, the only criteria being that they had to be enthusiastic. We then asked young people what was a crime issue for them.

The young people have worked on many issues including animal rights, firework safety and wearing bicycle helmets. One of the initial things that young people told us was that they were fed up of getting their mobiles phones stolen.

In order to tackle mobile phone theft we showed young people how to mark phones with uv pens and brought in the equipment.

Incidents of mobile phone theft dropped by 50% in the school town and within 5 local feeder towns.

Other organisations have also pledged to support the young people in their youthwatch scheme including the Fire Service, St John's ambulance, and various councils.

The scheme has spread to other schools and the police now have direct access to 36 local schools each with a population of 800-1000 pupils. Children and young people can directly ask for police support and help with certain issues. The police see this as a direct link to a large community of young people, and can learn about issues that are important to young people. The costs for the police are minimal, the benefits are enormous.

'However this is not a police scheme, Youthwatch belongs to the young people. It is about them raising issues that they identify as important and raising these within the school community. We support the young people in this, but this is their scheme.' (PC Simon Selby)

`A message went round school and I went to a meeting as I was interested to get involved. At first I just wanted to make a difference to the school but now it's going round the community' (Emma)

`We set up sessions over lunch time over a couple of days and marked everyone's phones. It's not just phones, we mark MP3s and CD players too.'

Simon brought the kit in for us, you just need UV lights and pens. He showed us what to do, it's really simple. You just write your name and postcode and the police can track that down easily.' (Emma)

`Mobile phone theft has reduced in the school and local area'

I think that our projects are hard-hitting and make people think. The main thing is getting people involved this is a good way to speak up' (Emma)

`We have started up an eco-team too. We're going to do a recycling project each classroom will get a blue bag for things to go into the recycling'

The young people received a Wavemakers Award in recognition of their achievements and initiative.

Judges said,

`Youthwatch shows clearly the benefit that can be achieved by working together with young people and letting them take the lead, even in tackling difficult issues such as crime and anti-social behaviour'.