A conference held on Thursday highlighted the prevention of social exclusion among children and young people.

The Children's Society is questioning whether targeting children with early intervention risk labels them as criminals.

Forum Response: The Children's Society

Sarah Moore, youth justice policy manager of the Children's Society, told ePolitix.com: "Children and families facing social exclusion ought to be given the support they need without the stigma of being labelled as problem families.

"The Children's Society would like to see the government's Children at Risk green paper addressing these needs to ensure that help is easily accessible, does not brand the children as criminals and offers support to all families with children.

"Families shouldn't have to wait until children they get involved in the criminal justice system before they get the help they need."

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers (PAT)

Jean Gemmell, general secretary of the PAT, told ePolitix.com: "Prevention is always better than cure and likely to be more cost effective. Labelling is generally not a good idea under any circumstances, because it tends to make presumption about outcomes."

Forum Brief: The Prince's Trust

A spokeswoman for the Prince's Trust told ePolitix.com: "Doing nothing is not a recipe for dealing with difficult social issues. Charities such as the Prince's Trust have a valuable role to play in providing complimentary services for young people.

"The Prince's Trust runs a network of 450 xl clubs in schools for pupils in the last two years of compulsory education, who are disaffected, at risk of exclusion or simply in need of additional support to complete their schooling.

"By offering this kind of support, these young people can make their own choices and gives them the opportunity to re-engage with education and their peers and work towards a better future."

Forum Response: CARE

A spokeswomman for CARE told ePolitix.com: "The concern raised by the Children's Society is one that CARE shares. Interventions should always be targetted appropriately. CARE's Remand Fostering programme usually works with young offenders already on remand. If a Court remands a young person to the care of a local authority for welfare reasons, rather than for serious offences, they will be stigmitised.

"When CARE assists Social Services with young people who are not on remand, we have to be careful not to make the situation worse by giving them labels they don't deserve.

"A good example of good practice is Splash, a government programme that provides activities for children over the summer holiday. Splash workswith young offenders and other at risk children. In this work, they are helping children without labelling them as criminals, reducing stress on families, providing stimulation and pro-social modeling and, in the process, reducing offending."