CYP Now - ‘Commission will look for solutions to generational cycles of violence’

There are tens of thousands of marginalised children, all of them born with great potential, whose opportunities are being curtailed because they are growing up in circumstances that make them extremely vulnerable to involvement with gangs or criminal or sexual exploitation.

The right support helps children and young people build positive lives. Picture: Merla/Adobe Stock

These are some of the children I shone a light on during my term as children’s commissioner and who I am determined to keep fighting for now. They are the teenagers who are more likely to be living in homes where there is domestic violence or addiction issues, suffering from mental health problems, or falling through the gaps in the education or care systems.

County lines

The damage caused to young lives by county lines is well known. But the number of teenagers at risk remains stubbornly high. The methods used to entice and trap children into criminality are increasingly sophisticated, while society’s response is often piecemeal, disjointed, underfunded and uncoordinated.

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