Council unveils five-year plan to keep Islington’s young people safe

The strategy focuses on early intervention, targeted support for vulnerable young adults and tackling the disproportionate impact of the youth justice sector on young Black people.

The council has made substantial improvements in youth safety in recent years; since 2017 the number of knife crime injury victims under 25 has fallen by more than 46%, and the number of first-time entrants into the youth justice system has reduced by 24%. The council has done this by working collaboratively with partners such as Arsenal in the Community and Abianda, reducing the number of school exclusions and working with schools to improve support for young people.

The adoption of the new Youth Safety Strategy is the next step in the council’s work to keep the borough’s young people safe, especially from being criminally exploited.

The strategy’s many initiatives include:

• using information to identify families who may need more support, and targeting robust support at individuals who are likely to reoffend, before they start doing so;
• establishing a Youth Safety Delivery Group, co-chaired by a young person, to keep track of progress and drive improvements, hand-in-hand with community partners and statutory organisations;
• working with the London Violence Reduction Unit to help parents and carers keep their children safe and improve their peer support networks;
• extending social, emotional and mental health support services up to 25-year-olds, so appropriate support is available in the transition to adulthood;
• working to keep children and young people in school and maximising academic and vocational achievement;
• screening a powerful and educational knife crime prevention film in secondary schools, produced by the Love and Loss group of bereaved families;
• addressing inequality and disproportionality within the youth and criminal justice system and beyond.

The strategy also outlines new ways of working with the whole community to ensure there is both awareness and support where it’s needed – including parents, teachers, health and social care professionals, the police, employers, charities and colleagues in the justice system, who all have a part to play in keeping our children and young people safe and on the right path.

Cllr Kaya Comer-Schwartz, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Families, said: “Keeping our young people safe is our number one priority in Islington. But we can’t do that alone and working with local partners on this is a vital part of our strategy.

“By working together, alongside young people, parents, carers and the wider community, we can keep local people safe, reduce crime and also steer some of our most vulnerable young people away from crime and towards a brighter future, in which they can reach their full potential.

“We were one of the first councils in the country to approach youth safety from a safeguarding perspective, recognising that many offenders have suffered childhood trauma, discrimination and exploitation.

“Prevention and early intervention is key, and this new five-year strategy outlines new and innovative ways to keep our young people out of harm’s way – and stop many more from ever becoming a victim or perpetrator.”

The Youth Safety Strategy 2020-2025 builds on the success and evaluation of Islington Council’s previous work in this area. The council’s own academic research, including the recent ground-breaking work on disproportionality, has shown that certain groups of children are more vulnerable than others to being exploited by organised crime groups, or being drawn into criminal lifestyles.

The strategy is part of Islington’s Fairer Together initiative, which aims make the borough a place where everyone, whatever their background, has the opportunity to reach their potential and enjoy a good quality of life. All children and young people in Islington deserve the best possible start in life and to be kept safe; a central principle of the new strategy.

Notes to editor

The council’s Executive approved the adoption of the Islington Youth Safety Strategy 2020-2025 on November 26.

The strategy and action plan can be found at islington.gov.uk/youthsafety