Prioritising safety of young Londoners affected by violence must be a priority, says Assembly

It follows a report by the Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee – ‘Preventing violence and protecting young people’ – that has been published on Thursday (March 14) following its two-part investigation into preventing violence affecting young Londoners.

The committee is calling for additional police training to avoid “adultification” and criminalisation of children and young people, and wants the MPS to provide a timetable by December this year to show how it will train every frontline officer in youth engagement.

It also wants the mayor to work with voluntary and community organisations, to increase investment in community-based non-policing solutions.

The committee says violence affecting young people can “cause significant trauma in individuals and communities, and can impact young people’s development, making them more likely to be involved in the justice system in later life”.

It held two formal meetings as part of the investigation, firstly with the Violence Reduction Unit’s (VRU) Young People’s Action Group, followed by a meeting with the MPS, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, charities and campaign groups.

The committee heard general agreement among the participants at its meetings that the root causes of violence are often in factors such as poverty, social inequalities (and an increase in inequality), failure of systems of support, low educational attainment and lack of opportunities for young people.

Geethika Jayatilaka, chief executive officer for Redthread, a youth working charity, told the committee: “We know there has been a significant decline in early intervention support services in terms of funding over the years […] very recently there was a Children’s Society report that highlighted a decrease in investment in early intervention services by local authorities of around 40 per cent over the last 12 years. We know that that support network is not as strong as it needs to be. Those are really the areas we need to look at if we are to effectively tackle this.”

The report makes 13 recommendations for the Mayor of London and the MPS, outlining clearly how prevent violence and protect young people.

Caroline Russell AM, chair of the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee, said: “There must be the right balance between prevention and enforcement. That’s what the Police and Crime Committee heard loud and clear when gathering evidence for our report.

“Young Londoners told us, youth practitioners told us, and the mayor’s VRU told us too about the value of addressing the underlying causes of violence and enriching young people’s lives.

“The safeguarding of any child or young person affected by violence is crucial and Met officers must be adequately trained when interacting with young Londoners and must prevent disproportionality in the use of tactics such as stop and search.

“Youth workers play a pivotal role in protecting young people, but face low pay and a lack of career progression opportunities which must be put right.

“We heard a wealth of evidence that we are presenting in this report so that the mayor, the Met, and the VRU take the right actions based on our recommendations to help London’s young people to thrive.”