Charity receives Home Office funding to expand county lines service

The Home Office is providing £860,000 in 2020/21 for the service to be run by St Giles Trust, a charity that has led the way in providing specialist support for young people and their families affected by county lines activity.

The money pledged is part of a wider £25m investment by the government to tackle county lines gangs, a form of organised crime where vulnerable young people are coerced to transporting and selling drugs in towns across the UK.

• Special report: Gangs and criminal exploitation

• Practice example: St Giles Trust Kent County Lines project

The funding will pay for the continuation of the service in London and enable it to be expanded into Merseyside and the West Midlands to address “substantial” unmet need for more support, the trust said.

The service will work closely with local partners in each of these areas, with caseworkers offering intensive one-to-one support for young people and their wider family.

In London, the new funding will mean additional capacity to the existing Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime commissioned multi-agency rescue and response service. The team will also focus on helping young people involved in London ‘borough lines’, where young people are exploited to transport drugs within London boroughs.

A team will be created to provide a rescue and response service to young people in the West Midlands who are found engaging in county lines activity, as well as providing targeted support to those at risk of exploitation.

For young people in Merseyside, casework will be offered with a focus on North Wales and other key destinations in the region.

For the first phase of the project, support will continue to be offered online and over the phone due to restrictions brought in as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the charity said.

Where face-to-face work directly with young people has not been possible due to the coronavirus crisis, caseworkers have focused on providing family support to concerned parents to help build positive family networks, it explained.

Until restrictions are further eased and face-to-face contact resumes, young people will be supported by phone and online methods, it added.

The charity said its interventions were based on a peer-led ethos, using professionally trained people with direct first-hand experiences of the issues faced by young people at risk of exploitation.

Evan Jones, head of community services at St Giles Trust, said the funding would support hundreds of young people currently beyond the charity’s reach.

“Whilst the consequences of county line involvement can be severe, there is light at the end of the tunnel if the right support is in place,” he said.

Sophie Linden, London’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, said almost £4m had been invested in the city’s rescue and response programme since 2018.

“I am pleased that this additional investment recognises our groundbreaking work, and will help this programme reach even more vulnerable young Londoners,” she said.

Clare Gollop, director of the West Midlands violence reduction unit, said it was reassuring further efforts were being made to protect and rescue young people in the region at risk of exploitation by criminal gangs.

“These vulnerable individuals are often coerced into selling drugs by dealers who are prepared to use extreme violence to intimidate and control," she said.

“We must recognise these young people are victims and act quickly to protect them, providing practical and safe ways to leave the situation.”

Detective Inspector Jimmy Belmar, of Merseyside Police, said it continually sought to bring offenders to justice through proactive policing and working with partners such as St Giles.

“This further funding will go hand in hand with methods already in place and I hope this only amplifies the safety of all those living, working and visiting Merseyside,” he said.

A report last month by the National Youth Agency warned that county lines gangs were adapting how they operate in response to the pandemic by targeting young people not attending school.