Labour pledges new youth hubs in plan to tackle knife crime

If elected the party would introduce Young Futures, £100m-a-year “Sure Start programme for teenagers”.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer’s announcement builds on plans put forward by shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper at the Labour Party Annual Conference in October.

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The programme would include the creation of as many as 90 youth hubs across the country and youth mental health hubs in every community.

It would also see funds committed to embedding youth workers in A&E departments, youth custody centres and communities to support young people involved in violent crime as well as mentors in pupil referral units.

Starmer has also pledged a “targeted programme in every area to identify the young people most at risk with a package of support tailored to their needs”.

Young Futures has been announced as part of a wider plan to cut levels of knife crime and child criminal exploitation by criminal gangs.

According to latest statistics from the Ministry of Justice, in the year to June 2023, there were 3,235 weapons possession offences committed by 10- to 17-year-olds, a 21 per cent increase over the previous decade.

The overarching proposals include plans for “guaranteed sanctions and serious interventions for young people found carrying knives” including compulsory referrals to youth offending teams and “mandatory, bespoke action plans to prevent re-offending”.

Use of tags, curfews and behavioural contracts would also increase under the plans, the party has said.

Labour also proposes a ban on the sale and possession of so-called zombie knifes and the creation of a cross-government coalition to end knife crime.

Starmer has pledged to reduce child criminal exploitation through the introduction of a new criminal offence for child exploitation and the development of a new serious organised crime strategy “to go after the gangs making millions from the exploitation of children and young people in our communities”.

“Too often nothing is done when there are signs that a young person is getting into trouble, being groomed by gangs, or lost into a dangerous online world,” Starmer said.

Last week, former children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield announced the launch of the Centre for Young Lives, a new think tank designed to "place children at the heart of policymaking" as the general election approaches.

Longfield’s Commission on Young Lives, from which the think tank stems, first mooted the idea of a “Sure Start for teenagers” in its Hidden in Plain Sight report published in December 2022.