Responding to the Youth Endowment Fund launching a new £6.5 million
fund to help support vulnerable children at risk of youth violence
during the coronavirus emergency, Cllr Simon Blackburn, Chair of
the Local Government Association’s Safer and Stronger Communities
Board, said:
“Councils have been leading the COVID-19 emergency response to
support vulnerable people, so we are pleased this funding is
being targeted towards vulnerable children at risk of youth
violence and those at risk under the current social distancing
and stay-at-home guidelines.
“Children’s social care referrals have fallen by more than half
in some areas since stay at home guidance was issued, which is a
serious concern.
“This fund will help support youth services so that essential
cost-effective prevention and early intervention work can help
make the necessary step-change to tackle serious violent crime,
including county lines activity and knife crime.
“We urge the Government to reconvene the Serious Violence
Taskforce to look at how all partners can tackle serious violence
and county lines activity which may see a resurgence after
lockdown measures are lifted.
“The Government needs to ensure local youth services, youth
offending teams and councils’ public health budgets have enough
long-term funding for services that protect our most vulnerable
children, otherwise we may not be able to tackle serious violence
in our communities.”
