A youth support charity has been awarded a top rating for its work in helping to improve young people’s lives in West Dunbartonshire.

Includem, which offers intensive round the clock support for vulnerable young people and their families, was given an ‘excellent’ grade for the third year running by the Care Inspectorate.

The inspectorate were particularly impressed by the approach they had to working with young clients.

It said: "The service had an excellent system in place for identifying areas of need and monitoring the progress of outcomes.

"Furthermore, a huge effort was made was made to improve young people’s lives and this was completed with a great deal of creativity and passion.

READ MORE: Awards for West Dunbartonshire police youth volunteers

"We consistently heard from young people and their families that Includem had made a significant difference in their lives."

Includem works with around a dozen young people in West Dunbartonshire who are experiencing challenges dealing with day to day living.

It offers tailored intensive support to build confidence and social skills to help them progress towards better lives.

The service is backed by a 24/7 helpline that service users can call for instant support.

Martin Dorchester, Includem chief executive, said: "To gain such recognition from the inspectorate for our work in West Dunbartonshire is reinforcement for us that our intensive trust based one-to-one approach to supporting young people facing difficult challenges in their lives really does work and helps transforms their life prospects.

"Our model of support is based upon building solid relationships of trust.

"Through this approach we are able to help young people make positive life choices and progress towards the type of future they want to live.

"It is not only the inspectorate who are telling us this it is our young people themselves."