Anne Longfield, former Children’s Commissioner for England, will
launch the ‘Commission on Young Lives’ on Thursday September 9th
2021.
Every day, young talent is being lost to gangs and the criminal
justice system. The number of teenagers in danger of
criminalisation, violence and diminished opportunities remains
stubbornly high, and the impact of the Covid pandemic is likely
to increase some of those risks. The damage caused to children by
county lines in England is now well-known, and the methods used
to entice and trap children into criminality are increasingly
brutal and sophisticated. Yet society is struggling to know what
to do. Its response is often disjointed, underfunded and
uncoordinated.
The ‘Commission on Young Lives’ is a major year-long independent
commission to fight back with coordinated national action to
transform the outcomes of the most marginalised teenagers. Its
aim is to devise, present and seek backing for a new and
affordable national system of support, focused on preventing
crisis and improving the life chances of vulnerable young people
at risk of getting into trouble with the law. The Commission is
supported and hosted by Oasis Charitable Trust, who have many
decades of experience working with vulnerable children and in
deprived communities.
The Commission will be launched alongside exclusive polling which
asks parents of children aged 5 to 18 about their concerns
surrounding knife crime, gangs and criminal justice.
