Last updated:
2nd October 2023
Meet Bea
Working with children who are at risk of or already involved in criminality, to prevent their behaviour escalating
“We see children as children and not as offenders, and I’m confident that we sow seeds in their lives that they and the community will reap the benefits of for many years to come.”
About me
I am Bea Nigolian and I have been managing the Prevention and Youth Justice service since April 2021.
In the Prevention and Youth Justice service, we work with children who are at risk of or already involved in criminality, to prevent their behaviour escalating and support them to achieve their full potential.
Our work helped to keep a child at their school
A recent example of how our work supports local children is through the Exclusion Prevention Programme, which we launched in September 2022, aiming to prevent school exclusion or suspension for children who are at risk of offending.
One of the children we worked with was getting into fights with other children and had inappropriate behaviour towards teachers. They were going to be moved to another school.
After working with our Exclusion Prevention Programme, the relationships between the child and their peers/teachers improved. The school decided to stop the move. Parents reported that teachers were now calling them to praise their child’s behaviour and the child told us they were happy to be able to stay at their school.
Our work helped to keep the child remain at their school, there were no further behaviours of concern reported.
Working together
To make sure that we deliver high quality services to children and the community, I engage in an ongoing process of assessing the service need, planning the delivery of activity, reviewing the quality of our work, and developing partnerships with other agencies who can also form part of the offer of support to the children we work with.
Working together is really important to promote positive outcomes for children. I regularly meet with schools, health, and substance misuse services, to make sure we are supporting children in the best way possible.
I also meet with our Council teams, such as the Community Safety Partnership, to understand the needs of the wider Wokingham community, which enables me to develop new programmes to support children who are at risk of offending.
I work closely with Thames Valley Police, to ensure that children who offend continue to be treated as children and are supported to get help as early as possible.
A core part of my role also involves working with our dedicated team of Youth Justice Workers, to ensure that they have access to the right tools and support to do their jobs.
We get some funding from the Ministry of Justice and other central and regional bodies, but it is the Council who predominately fund our service, which provides us with the necessary resources to be able to deliver a good service to our community. As part of my job, I spend time preparing reports for our senior leaders and for government bodies, who monitor and scrutinise the work that we do.
Giving everyone the best start in life
I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to have the best start in life. I love everything about what I do and would not want to have any other job in the world.
I often work with children who have experienced difficulties in life and through our work, we can help them to reach their full potential, which in turn benefits the whole community.
I am passionate about the “child first” approach, where we see children as children and not as offenders, and I’m confident that we sow seeds in their lives that they and the community will reap the benefits of for many years to come.
