The young persons services team at East Renfrewshire Council is celebrating its most successful year to date.

A record number of 1,176 young people have benefitted from working with the young person's services team within a twelve month period.

And these supported youngsters have achieved a record number of accredited awards with more individuals gaining an award, and more of them achieving a greater number of awards each.

The team works closely with East Ren young people identified as most in need such as those with additional support needs; those engaging in high risk behaviour such as early sexual activity and smoking; young parents and those at risk of engaging in criminal or anti social behaviour.

Specific programmes have been set up with a strong focus on preventing teenage pregnancy and supporting young parents to provide their children with a stable and secure start in life. These programmes have been recognised as providing successful interventions and enabling young people to make more informed choices about their lives and bodies.

Twenty-four-year-old Jill from East Renfrewshire credits the support of the team with helping to put her on a positive new path when she was expecting a baby at 16-years-old. Jill was on her own with no friends when the young persons team got her involved with a young mums group. This led her on to making new friends, becoming a volunteer, completing training courses and becoming a leader in supporting young mums. Her volunteer work informed her career decision to work with young people and she applied to study for a post-graduate degree in teaching. She is now working as a probationary teacher, owns her own mortgaged home and is mum to a son in primary one.

Jill said: "There's no way I could have done it without the support from young persons services. I'm a completely different person now and I'm proud of who I am and what I've achieved."

East Renfrewshire Council's convener for community services and community safety Cllr Montague said: "Our young persons services team does outstanding work with our young people in East Renfrewshire and has had its most successful year to date. The team have worked with a record number of young people and supported them to achieve more awards than ever before. The team's efforts mean a remarkable number of our young people have benefitted from local youth work and have been supported on to new pathways into employment, further education or to lead healthier lifestyles."