Youth workers step in amid lack of family help to protect children from crime

Parents and families play “an important role in preventing children and young people” becoming involved in crime, according to the report by the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee.

But the capital is blighted by “an absence of wraparound" help from families which is seeing many children “not getting that support”.

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Often youth workers are having to “step in and fill that gap”, the report by the Committee found.

Among those giving evidence to the committee was Sherry Peck, chief executive of the youth crime prevention charity Safer London.

She told assembly members that the charity focuses on work with parents as they “are the biggest safeguarding factors for our children”.

Another giving evidence was London Youth chief executive Pauline Daniyan.

“She suggested that many young people in London are not getting the necessary ‘wraparound’ support that would exist within a tight family unit, due to inequalities and deprivation that exist in some parts of London,” states the Committee’s report.

“In such instances, she noted, the responsibility for filling the vacuum fell to youth workers and community organisations outside of the family unit.”

#AssemblyPolice has published its report – ‘Preventing violence and protecting young people’.

The Committee is calling for additional police training to avoid “adultification” and criminalisation of children and young people.

Read the report ⤵https://t.co/YKZne77lo5 pic.twitter.com/IrqLrfTBX5

— London Assembly (@LondonAssembly) March 14, 2024

The Committee’s report calls for the police to work with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) to ramp up partnerships with youth workers to “prevent violence, support children and young people affected by violence and to improve police understanding of young people”.

The VRU should strengthen its support to help “develop and further professionalise the work of youth practitioners in London”, it adds.

Khan should also work with voluntary organisations to increase investment in community-based approaches to tackle youth crime.

Among community support praised by Committee members is the work of the charity Redthread, whose hospital-based youth workers support young people impacted by violent crime.

The report “recognises the value of youth work, and we welcome its recommendation for further investment,” said Redthread.

“We particularly thank the committee for acknowledging our work and reiterating its support for Redthread’s hospital-based youth work, engaging young people who have been impacted by violence at that reachable moment, when they are likely to be most receptive to help.”