The Criminal Justice Summit is over but the work continues right down to the school level.

Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones met with Northland school teachers and principals in Whangarei yesterday and was given a short list of challenges.

These includes the need to ramp up mental health health services to deal with the increasing number of children with neurological or behavioural problems, and support for getting government departments more involved in funding solutions.

He says what is happening in the schools are pointers to the wider problems of getting parents back into the workforce or ensuring today's school pupils don't end up not in employment, education or training.

"We're talking about kids who are presenting with problems before they become NEETs and a lot of my focus has been on the nephs and the NEETs but if there is a way of preparing the next generation of employees and helping schools dealing with their work-readiness challenges to the extent that they relate to drugs and incredibly bad behaviour then I feel I have no option but to put my shoulder to the wheel and work with my colleagues and also work with teachers and education leaders," Mr Jones says.

He says the poetry of the summit is over and now it's time for the prose of government action.

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