Local government has a key role to play in protecting children and young people from involvement in, and the impact of, organised crime.
Key messages
- Local government has a key role to play in protecting children and young people from involvement in, and the impact of, organised crime, including serious violence and modern slavery as they are uniquely placed to build communities that are inclusive, cohesive and promote life chances.
- Councils provide more than 800 services to their local communities and despite working hard to identify efficiencies and generate innovative solutions to core funding reductions, they face a £7.8 billion funding gap by 2025. £3 billion of this is attributed to children’s services.
- Government has recently made a number of welcome announcements regarding new pots of funding that councils, among other organisations, can bid for in order to tackle issues around crime and young people. This includes funding through the Serious Violence Strategy, the Early Intervention Youth Fund and the Trusted Relationships Fund.
- Ringfenced and one-off pots of funding play an important role in developing programmes that can protect children and young people and support them in become healthy and confident members of their local communities. However, without sustained and continuous core funding for councils’ children’s services, these funds will struggle to deliver long-term benefits for the young people themselves, or for their wider communities.
- National Crime Agency (NCA) figures show that in 2016, over 1200 children and young people were officially reported as potential victims of modern slavery, including being used to conduct forced criminality and being sexually exploited.
- County lines gangs often exploit children, young people and vulnerable adults to move and store drugs and money. They use coercion, intimidation, violence and weapons to assert control. We know from the Serious Violence Strategy that nearly every police force in England and Wales has been affected by county lines activity to some degree. This is an issue which affects all local areas, it is not just something that happens in major cities.
- To this end, we welcome the Government’s recent decision to make Relationship and Sex Education a compulsory school subject. Schools have an important role to play in helping children and young people learn about positive relationships and educating them about wider issues. Conversations inside and outside the classroom can help children to recognise potentially abusive behaviours, identify trusted adults who they can talk to and receive information about support services.