Labour announces new ‘tough love’ youth programme to tackle knife crime, youth violence and address the crisis in young people’s mental health

In her speech at Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will announce Young Futures, a new cross-government national programme aimed at giving Britain’s young people the best start in life, with a specific strand of activity targeted at those young people at most risk of being drawn into violent crime and delivering support for young people struggling with their mental health.

This will be a key part of achieving Labour’s mission to halve knife crime and youth violence in a decade.

The Shadow Home Secretary will set out how reforming services for young people will be the focus of a major cross-departmental initiative if Labour wins the next election.

Its intention is to bring together support for young people in a radical new, co-ordinated way to better address the new serious challenges facing teenagers and their families, from the rise in knife crime, youth violence and county lines exploitation through to growing mental health challenges and the longer-term impact of social media and the pandemic on young lives.

She will argue that, under the Tories, services supporting teenagers have become badly fragmented and neglected, with local partnerships stretched and struggling to coordinate activity. The Commission on Young Lives, Hidden in Plain Sight, described how: “the experience of parents [of at-risk children and teenagers] told a consistent tale of missed opportunities, unmet need, and a confused tangle of services. When there is contact with services, families say that they are too-often met with a conveyor belt of assessments, churn of professionals and early closure of cases.”

Cooper will point to a range of devastating statistics showing worsening outcomes for young people, including a record number of children and young people seeking mental health support from the NHS, analysis from the think tank Crest suggesting over 200,000 children are vulnerable to serious violence, a record number of children as victims of crime in 2021/2022, and last year seeing the highest number of people killed with a knife for over 70 years, with the biggest increase amongst young boys aged 16-17.

Labour’s new Young Futures programme will draw on up to £100 million a year, based on combining existing commitments to fund new youth mentors and mental health hubs in every community, youth workers in pupil referral units and A&E, and a programme of public sector reform to deliver: 

• A targeted programme in every area to identify the young people most at risk of being drawn into violent crime and build a package of support that responds to the challenges they are facing. This will be achieved through bringing together services at a local level to better coordinate delivery of preventative interventions around the young person, rooted in a strong evidence base.
• Develop a national network of Young Futures hubs to bring local services together, deliver support for teenagers at risk of being drawn into crime or facing mental health challenges and, where appropriate, deliver universal youth provision.
• Youth workers in A&E units, custody centres, pupil referral units and communities to target young people who are starting to be drawn into violence.
• Ensure existing enforcement measures are effectively utilised, including family interventions, the use of curfews, enforcement of penalties, drug and alcohol interventions, community work, and stronger action against the criminal gangs that are drawing young people into crime.

The programme will be a major reform to focus on prevention rather than just sticking plaster policies, and will mean government departments, schools and local services working together so that at local level services operate around young people and their families rather than in separate silos. Local partnerships will draw together mainstream services with the work of Violence Reduction Units and voluntary sector organisations and will help deliver Labour’s mission to halve knife crime in the country within the next ten years.

The Young Futures Programme will be developed with local government leaders, experts, and young people themselves, and local partnerships will be measured against a national outcomes framework to allow for local innovation in delivery. The initial focus of the programme will be knife crime but once the programme is demonstrating results Labour will look to expand the remit beyond youth violence and into other mission objectives such as educational attainment.

The programme also aims to increase access to universal provision of youth services to help all young people thrive and get ready for work and life. This element of the programme will initially be boosted by Labour’s plan for new youth hubs and staff, but in time could be supported by the outcomes of a review in government of funding for support for young people to ensure it is effective and evidence based. 

Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, will say:

“Young people have been totally let down by this Tory Government, who have failed to recognise the growing vulnerability of many teenagers – be it because of the rise of county lines gangs, impact of damaging content on social media or the pandemic.

“Whether it’s addressing knife crime, violence in teenage relationships, or the record number of young people seeking mental health support, this floundering government have never sought to grip the issue and support teenagers and families at a tough time in their lives.

“We need urgent interventions to stop young people getting drawn into crime or exploitation in the first place. For too long, teenagers have been pushed from pillar to post between local authorities, mental health services, the police and youth offending teams. That’s why we are setting up a cross-Government ‘tough love’ initiative, with new youth hubs and proper local plans to identify those most at risk and help them access the support they need. 

“And for those who repeatedly cause trouble in their community or are found carrying knives, there also need to be stronger interventions and clear consequences to stop their behaviour escalating and to keep other young people safe. 

“A Labour Government will give young people their future back.”

Ends

Notes:

What is the Young Futures programme and what will it do?

Making young people a cross-Government priority

We will set up a new cross-government initiative to oversee Young Futures, bringing together all relevant departments to set objectives, oversee delivery, and assess outcomes.

Local Young Futures partnerships

Labour will work with local authorities to establish new Young Futures partnerships to properly coordinate and better integrate existing services for teenagers in their area. These will be governed by a national outcomes framework to allow for flexibility in local delivery models. This is a reform exercise to better coordinate existing services around children and young people’s lives.

The Partnerships will include police, local government (youth services, social services & community safety officers), CAMHs, local schools, YOTs, and the voluntary sector. Where VRUs exist at a police force level, these will be given responsibilities to oversee and work with the local partnership teams. Work of partnerships will need to be clearly focused, evidence based and informed by the work of the Youth Endowment Fund. This will be closely monitored by central government.

Partnerships will be required to:

• Map provision of existing services for teenagers in the area (both universal access and targeted services) and opportunities for better cooperation and coordination.
• Establish data and systems for identifying or mapping children and young people most at risk of being drawn into violence, exploitation, crime & antisocial behaviour.
• Draw up Child Community Safety Plans. These are analogous to existing Child Protection Plans but instead focused on identifying children most at risk of harm outside the home and ensuring social services, police and local schools co-ordinate child protection interventions.

Establish a referral framework for children at risk into local support and services, so local services, families and young people themselves can refer themselves for support

We will also take a tougher approach to children that have slipped into criminal offences by requiring partnerships to ensure they receive appropriate interventions much earlier on to divert them away from more serious wrongdoing – including rolling out Focussed Deterrence approaches which combine mental health and employment support and diversionary activities with stronger enforcement and intervention requirements where young people breach the conditions.  Currently in many cases, even where young people are found carrying knives, the consequences, enforcement and follow up are minimal and fail to prevent repeat offending.

Local Young Futures Hubs

Every area that wants one will be supported to open a Young Futures Hub. These will serve the purpose of both encouraging collaboration and a person-centred approach across youth services that are located in the same space and create places for both targeted and, where appropriate, universal youth services to be based. Each local Hub will also receive funding to recruit at least 4 new youth workers (368 nationally).

This builds on Labour’s existing commitment to deliver mental health hubs for young people which provide early intervention and support for young people struggling with their mental health, which could be co-located.

Local areas will make their own choices about the provision that is right for them. Some areas may already have youth spaces, which they choose to expand – or some might choose to work with local schools, as has happened in parts of London.

Additional youth workers and mentors that will be based in Pupil Referral Units and A&E, will also be linked into these Hubs, so they can become a ‘one stop shop’ for services, information, targeted intervention and, in some cases, universal activities for local young people.

It will be for local authorities to decide what provision best suits the needs of their communities. In addition to the new support above, we will support local places to bid to existing government funds such as the Youth Investment Fund and we will review all government funding for young people to ensure it is effective and evidence based. 

How will this be funded?

Young Futures Hubs will cost £91.7 million a year. The hubs will be delivered through our existing commitment for open access hubs for young people in every upper tier local authority area, expanding the focus from solely mental health to also support those at risk of becoming engaged in violenceFour youth workers will be attached to each new hub.

As announced previously, this will use a portion of the money raised by levying VAT on private school fees.

Rolling out youth mentors and youth workers in Pupil Referral Units and A&Es in 10 areas will cost £14.6mn which is is an existing commitment and funded by requiring full cost recovery for firearms licensing.

Labour will also review existing government funding for support for young people to ensure it is effective and evidence-based. The outcome of this review will help us decide the best use of our resources to achieve our missions for young people.

What might this work look like?

This approach is already proving successful in many parts of England, and Young Futures aims to build on these successes.

• SHiFT in South London provides a one-to-one mentor for young people who have become involved in violence and helps them navigate the support needed from different agencies.
• In Northampton the ‘Community Initiative to Reduce Violence’ Programme works to reduce violence by working across multiple local agencies to give gang members a pathway out of their lifestyle.
• London VRU is already running projects aimed diverting young people away from crime and addressing multiple causes of crisis.

London VRU MyEnds case study

MyEnds programme has been developed to put communities at the forefront of tackling violence by giving them the support they need to deliver locally-designed interventions. The VRU invests in eight areas of London that are affected by high and sustained levels of violence. These areas are hyper local, it could be an estate or a small pocket of roads.

The programme brings together local groups and individuals as part of a local community network that involves residents, community groups, young people, youth outreach workers, local authorities and the police, to deliver meaningful change where they live and work.

In Croydon, the Finesse Foreva music business course is a 12-week programme funded through one of the MyEnds consortium groups based in the borough. The intervention aims to provide young people with skills and knowledge to gain employment in the music industry, and in doing so provide opportunities to divert young people from criminal activity. Young people are supported with challenges through one-to-one mentoring.

As well as providing an initial vocational learning opportunity to participants, the music business course raises young people’s awareness of opportunities available to them in the music industry, and a platform to access these opportunities. This gives them a greater sense of purpose, and has broadened their horizons, in some cases diverting participants away from a trajectory towards criminal activity.

Both staff and young people reported in interviews that young people’s employability had improved as a result of their participation in the course. They attributed this to:

• Increased skills related to gaining and undertaking employment, including CV writing, interviewing, project management and communication. Whilst geared towards employment in the music industry, these are transferable skills that were useful for improving young people's employability more broadly. 
• Greater knowledge and understanding of, and exposure to, the music industry and its contacts and networks. The content of the course; exposure to industry events; and introductions to guest speakers and Finesse Foreva’s contacts were reported to have helped participants to progress more quickly in an industry that can be hard to crack.
• Some young people have gone on to secure jobs within the industry, including for leading companies such as Sony and Island Records. They highlighted the skills, confidence and contacts gained through the course as having helped them to achieve this. 

Source:

Analysis from the think tank Crest suggesting over 200,000 children are vulnerable to serious violence: Serious violence in context: understanding the scale and nature of serious violence (crestadvisory.com)