Child of the North 2024 Campaign – Report 11
Child of the North 2024 Campaign – Report 11
A country that works for all children and young people
An evidence-based plan for addressing childhood vulnerability, crime and justice
The eleventh report in a year-long series – produced jointly by Child of the North and the Centre for Young Lives – that seeks to deliver a country that works for all children and young people, sets out an evidence-based plan to protect and support the thousands of vulnerable children in England at risk of involvement with the criminal justice system.
The report, An evidence-based plan for addressing childhood vulnerability, crime and justice, recommends targeted action to divert vulnerable young people away from criminal exploitation and harm by focusing on keeping children in school, rolling out mental health hubs in areas of disadvantage, and delivering better identification and support.
Written by researchers from the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, the report shows how every year, thousands of children become involved in the criminal justice system or become victims of serious violence or crime. While increasingly fewer young people are going into secure custody, most children involved in the criminal justice system share similar experiences of childhood adversity, including poverty, unmet SEND, exclusion from school, abuse, neglect and exposure to domestic violence, addiction, or mental ill-health at home.
The report finds that:
- 8 in 10 young people in the youth justice system were identified as having SEND
- 85% of boys in Young Offender Institutions have previously been excluded from school
- While 94% of looked after children in England and Wales do not get into trouble with the law, approximately half of the children in custody have been in care at some point.
The report also shows how the likelihood of young people being drawn into the criminal justice system is strongly influenced by where they live, their race, ethnic and cultural heritage, experiences of care, and levels of deprivation.
It follows a study published by Ofsted and other agencies earlier in November revealing that children as young as 11 years old were found to be carrying knives for protection, and highlighting the links between the increase in violence and exploitation of children in “county lines” run by criminal gangs.
Recent analysis by the Centre for Young Lives has also revealed how cases of Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) have increased sharply over the last two years, with children identified by social services almost 40,000 times over the last year as victims of criminal or sexual exploitation, or being involved in gangs. Yet, as research published last week by the Youth Endowment Fund shows, just 12% of children involved in serious violence receive support to prevent future harm.
The report makes a series of recommendations which align with the new Government’s Opportunity Mission for children and its Young Futures plans, including:
- A holistic and coordinated “whole-system” approach with public services working together to identify and address the reasons why children offend or become victims of crime. Services should be better connected and embedded within local communities, particularly in the most disadvantaged areas. Trauma-informed mental health services should be placed in community hubs, youth centres, and schools, and social workers, mental health professionals, and youth workers should work collaboratively to identify early signs of distress and to build a proactive support system for young people at risk. Teachers, school staff, and dedicated mental health teams should be supported to work collaboratively to identify early signs of harm, and to offer a support system for pupils who may otherwise fall through the cracks.
- Addressing children’s underlying vulnerabilities and disadvantages, rather than their behaviours, preventing them from becoming victims of crime and reducing offending and improving outcomes. As the evidence from county lines and child sexual abuse illustrates, there needs to be greater recognition of the overlap between victimisation and offending that supports children to develop positive relationships with trusted adults. Focusing on early interventions that build resilience and prevent escalation is essential. Developing a more inclusive school system that supports vulnerable pupils, including training to help school staff to recognise SEND, neurodiversity, and signs of distress and trauma is crucial.
- Diversion schemes for children, young people, their families, and communities to keep young people out of the criminal justice system. Community-based programmes which can provide safe and constructive outlets for children, steering them away from harmful environments and potential criminal involvement are urgently needed. Schools, as community anchors, should be supported to collaborate with local organisations capable of offering extracurricular programmes that build skills, self-worth, and community connection.
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An evidence-based plan for addressing childhood vulnerability, crime and justiceOur analysis reveals that:
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The report also presents a range of existing innovative approaches to support vulnerable children who are involved with, or at risk of becoming involved with, the criminal justice system or serious violence, including:
Trauma-informed policing in Child Sexual Exploitation is a collaborative project initiated between the Centre for Child Protection (CCP) and Kent Police, led by the University of Kent, and supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The result was an award-winning immersive simulation training tool to improve police officers’ responses to girls with lived experience of CSE. The simulation integrates a trauma-informed approach and was developed through a series of collaborative workshops between CCP and Kent Police, leading to the development of an innovative and immersive simulation-based training experience, ‘Robyn and Molly’.
Bradford SAFE Taskforce. In 2022, the DfE allocated £3.3 million to Bradford to unite local schools in reducing children’s vulnerability to serious violence. This funding led to the creation of the Bradford SAFE Taskforce, spearheaded by Exceed Academies Trust. Through this innovative initiative, a variety of carefully designed, evidence-based interventions were introduced across 18 schools in the city. The primary focus of these interventions is to improve children’s attendance, behaviour, and engagement with their education, including a gender-specific mentoring scheme, and attendance-focused interventions which directly supports children who have poor attendance to school and aims to re-engage them back into education.
Encouraging Potential Inspiring Change (EPIC) is Doncaster’s specialist targeted youth provision, which is helping to divert first time entrants into the criminal justice system. They focus on supporting children at risk of criminal exploitation and educational prevention interventions in schools utilising innovative approaches such as virtual reality. Within schools, EPIC delivers assemblies to whole year groups around risks associated with being involved in ASB and crime, as well as information, education, and guidance around child criminal exploitation and where to go for help. EPIC also delivers alternative learning provision to prevent permanent exclusions for young people who had taken a bladed article into school.
Anne Longfield, Executive Chair of the Centre for Young Lives, said:
“Our prisons are full, and our streets feel unsafe. Hardly a week passes without seeing the horrific consequences of failing to tackle serious violence and exploitation. Teenagers are losing their lives or their liberty, families are left devastated and communities left in shock.
“Frequently, there is a chilling sense of inevitability for many of the most vulnerable children, particularly those with unsupported Special Educational Needs and those in care or on the edge of it. They are at greater risk of being groomed into criminal or sexual exploitation or caught up in gangs and serious violence.
“Supporting these children and their families early, through schools, youth work, and mental health support, is crucial. We need a whole-child and whole-system approach to tackle childhood vulnerability, with children and families at the centre of coordinated services.
“The new Government is already making clear that its approach to tackling serious violence and exploitation will include intervention and diversion programmes to support vulnerable teenagers, including its forthcoming Young Futures pilots.
“This provides a vital opportunity to start to rebuild and refresh the community-based, targeted interventions that we know can divert young people away from harm, boosting life chances, and saving lives. The recommendations set out in this report should be at the heart of that programme.”
Professor Mark Mon Williams, Child of The North report series editor, said:
“Preventing children from entering the criminal justice system is not just a moral imperative but essential for a prosperous country. We would empty our prisons if we invested in early interventions that address the root causes of vulnerability. The evidence shows we can break intergenerational cycles of disadvantage by prioritising education, mental health, and community support.
“Breaking the links between a disadvantaged childhood and the criminal justice system would create a brighter future for all children and the whole of our society.”
Dr Camilla Kingdon, Former President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said:
“As a paediatrician, it is easy to feel hopeless when you look at the figures for the number of children entering the criminal justice system. It is heart sinking to know that we can often predict which children will end up getting into trouble and yet historically the system has felt paralysed to act early. This report gives me hope. We can break the seemingly endless cycle of intergenerational disadvantage. Here we have a set of recommendations using a holistic child centred approach, underpinned by the use of data, that can reset the trajectory to one that is brighter and more optimistic.”
Co-author of the report, Professor Kate Brown, Co-Director of the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, said:
“The evidence is definitive – we urgently need stronger social and community support for the most vulnerable children and young people. Failure to act will mean we keep on punishing the most vulnerable in the criminal justice system and leaving them exposed to crime.
“If we are serious about preventing crime, it’s investment in children’s life opportunities, care and education that matters most.”
Co-author of the report, Professor Adam Crawford, Co-Director of the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, said:
“There is both an urgent need and ripe opportunity to shift the dial on how we advance a ‘whole system’ approach to childhood vulnerability, crime and justice that places children’s needs at the heart of service provision.
“Reducing exposure to harm up-stream and minimising young people’s engagement with criminal justice through diversion are key to preventing children becoming victims of crime, reducing offending and improving outcomes, not only in childhood but across the life-course.”
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