Domestic violence advisers placed in London hospitals

John Poyton, chief executive of Redthread, which has youth work teams in the capital’s four major trauma centres, said the service – which launched in December – will work with Solace Women’s Aid to provide independent domestic violence advise.

“We are going to have three domestic violence advocates working with us across all four hospitals,” he said.

“The service will be split, but all four – the Royal London, St Mary’s, St George’s and King's College – are on board and excited to look at how we are going to be able to support the young victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence in addition to the current services.”?

The advisers will focus on working with vulnerable young people aged 25 and under, with the aim of ensuring they can access appropriate support.

The move is the latest expansion for Redthread's hospital-based service this year. Eight months ago, it started working at St George’s Hospital in south west London and the Royal London Hospital in east London, after many years delivering a service at King's.

Poyton revealed the plans to CYP Now following the release of a report into knife crime in the capital by Liberal Democrat London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon.

Data gathered between 26 March and 8 May 2015, found there were 789 recorded victims of serious youth violence, along with 1,231 victims of knife crime and 441 victims of knife crime with injury.

“In London over the past decade, 125 young people have been fatally stabbed on our streets,” Pidgeon said. “We need to redouble our efforts to prevent such violence. The policies of simply responding to knife crime are neither adequate or effective.”??

The report calls for the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime to increase funding for initiatives such as Redthread so that there are youth workers focusing on intervention, and also to fund an anti-knife crime educational programme for all London schools each year.

It also recommends the Metropolitan Police increases the operational use of “knife arches” in known violent crime hotspots.

??Poyton said police tactics for tackling knife crime are getting more sophisticated, but warned that knife arches and "shock tactic" education programmes are not always effective.

“We can see that young people are continuing to be injured because however much they may have experienced violent trauma before, there are still obviously a lot of kids carrying knives as a form of protection and getting caught up,” he added.