A PLEDGE to make the fight against crime top of the agenda if the Conservatives get into Government was made by party leader Iain Duncan Smith this week during a visit to a rehabilitation centre at Highampton which is slashing the reoffending rates.

Mr Duncan Smith said C-FAR (Centre for Adolescent Rehabilitation) was ?breaking new ground? by developing the self-worth and self-esteem of young men caught up in a cycle of crime and it was an approach which had clearly produced results.

His visit to C-FAR follows the recent Tory Party conference where the 18-month-old community rehabilitation project was highlighted as a model for the future by Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin.

Mr Duncan Smith said the terrible rate of reoffending in this country was now the worst in the Western World. He described C-FAR?s work as ?fascinating? and pushing the boundaries of what could be done with persistent young offenders.

During his three-hour visit he was given a presentation by members of the team who talked about the intensive programme of discipline, life skills, training for industry and confidence building. He saw how it had given the young men between 18 and 24 a new outlook on life and a place in society with mentor support helping them to get jobs and accommodation.

Mr Duncan Smith also met trainees currently on the eleven-week course and was impressed by their plans.

He was told the current reconviction rate for trainees going through the C-FAR programme was 25% as opposed to 75% coming out of the prison system.

It has been estimated that the charity, which is seeking significant funding from the Home Office to further its work, has already saved the Treasury £5.5-million.

?C-FAR is focusing on offenders getting off the conveyor belt of crime and learning skills to take back into the community,? said Mr Duncan Smith.

?One of the biggest issues we have today is the level of street crime and violence in our towns and cities ? it?s an epidemic and we need to look at tackling the re-offending rates in a radical way.

?The ethos of C-FAR is about building self-worth and encouraging these young people to find something positive and rewarding within themselves.?

He said his lasting memory would be of one of the students who had discovered something about himself which had surfaced through the work at C-FAR.

?Over an eight-week period this young man has been learning outward bound training and found he has a talent ? it is what he will take away from here and the big smile on his face and his sense of self-worth is something I will remember.?

He said when the Conservatives returned to Government they would be working with organisations like C-FAR, which were run by people who were very focussed.

?Part of our policy is to give young offenders a longer sentence which we would incorporate courses like C-FAR into,? he said. ?At the moment the Government is not addressing the problem of re-offending and it is getting out of control.

?There is always a hard core of people who will not come through the other side a better person, but if we can stop the rest from re-offending than we are winning.?

The charity was praised by leading police officers who had been impressed by the drastic change in young men who had got into a cycle of re-offending because of a dysfunctional family background and drug abuse.

What they had been provided with was stability from C-FAR, and the police and other agencies were there to see that trainees stayed on the straight and narrow when they completed the course.

Chief executive of C-FAR, former Royal Marine Trevor Philpott said there was a huge wave of support for the rehabilitation work which was currently funded by the European Social Fund, Employment Service, local authorities and private trusts and charities plus £150,000 from the Home Office.

Plans were to redevelop the premises at Highampton to the tune of £1.1-million and make it a centre of excellence with franchise centres across the country. There is also an aim to open a centre for young female offenders in 2004.