Labour to establish specialist unit dedicated to preventing crime among young people

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The government will establish a unit dedicated to preventing violent crime among young people to give teenagers the best start in life, the home secretary has announced.

The “young futures” unit will include setting up youth hubs and identifying those most at risk of being drawn into violence, exploitation, crime and anti-social behaviour.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said teenagers today have it “much, much harder” than previous generations because they face pressures from social media, county lines gangs, and child criminal exploitation.

It comes following the killings of three children in Southport, which she described as “deeply traumatic and just absolutely awful”.

“It’s part of our cross-government mission to halve serious violence and also rebuild confidence in policing and the criminal justice system,” Ms Cooper told the Guardian.

“As part of that, the young futures programme is a 10-year vision, about how we prevent young people being drawn into crime in the first place, and also about how we give their future back.”

Plans for young futures hubs have previously been proposed by the Labour Party, and at last year’s party conference Ms Cooper announced an ambition to spend £100 million on the policy, which also aims to improve mental health services for young people.

Councils and police forces will have until Christmas to put proposals in place to tackle crime among young people, according to The Guardian.

New Home Office guidelines will be in force by the end of the year and will set out how networks of police, mental health professionals, local schools, youth offending teams and charities can work together to reduce teenage crime.

The unit forms part of the Government’s ambition to halve knife crime and levels of violence against women and girls within the next ten years.

Ms Cooper expressed frustration at the lack of progress when it comes to violence against women and girls, adding: “For too long it’s been treated as something that will just always be there.”

New data from the British Transport Police revealed the number of crimes against women and girls on the country’s railways more than doubled – from 7,561 in 2021 to 11,357 in 2023.

The home secretary added that under previous Conservative governments, support for teenagers became neglected, with councils stretched and struggling to coordinate activity.