CYP Now - Tackling youth violence: policy context

A survey of local directors of public health by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) for England assessed local responses to youth violence and gangs.

Youth Endowment Fund’s Peer Action Collective will find out about young people’s eperiences of violence to inform research. Picture: Daniel Ernst/Adobe Stock

Scale of problem

The findings, published earlier this year in the report Still Not Safe, reveal that nearly three quarters of local authorities did not include estimates on the numbers of children involved in youth violence in their joint strategic needs assessments (JSNAs). Those areas that did used a mix of measures such as offences against the person, figures for crimes against children, reoffending rates, and summoning, charging and custody rates.

The exclusive focus on criminal justice indicators meant authorities “missed other important measures such as ambulance call outs or A&E attendances relating to child victims of violent assaults”, the report adds, “undermining the potential to accurately measure the problem and design services to meet local needs.”

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