Agenda item

For the reasons set out in the report,

Cabinet:

i.                 Approved the approach outlined in the Report and the request for resources allocated to Children’s Services, to enable the development of a multi-disciplinary adolescent safeguarding approach to address serious youth violence and exploitation. This would be the mechanism through which to deliver the actions contained in the Serious Group Violence and Knife Crime strategy relating to children and young people, approved at Cabinet in April 2019.

ii.                Agreed £750,000 funding over two calendar years (three financial years) over which time this approach will be fully evaluated and other (external) sources of funding can be explored. Following this, the service will be core funded from an allocation of demographic growth and a permanent budget adjustment to carry this work forward. Refer to financial implications and risks at section four of the report.

Councillor Robert Benham, Cabinet Member for Education, Children & Families presented the report to Cabinet. He stated that the Borough is very proud of the young people who are part of the community as they give great hope for the future and a commitment to be the best they can be. However, the young people of the Borough face a number of challenges in today’s world which is widely publicised in the media.

Young people are vulnerable to criminal and sexual exploitation as well as to violence and knife crime. Although Havering remains a safe borough without the scale of challenge faced in other parts of London, it is necessary to address these issues locally.

In April, 2019 Cabinet agreed the Serious Group Violence and Knife Crime Strategy Partnership.  Aligned to this, the Adolescent Safeguarding Strategy has been developed.  This sets out how the Council can protect young people who are vulnerable to violence and criminal exploitation.

The approach supports the ongoing improvement of Children’s Services and one element of that is to address criminal and sexual exploitation by developing interventions and appropriate services.  This will help to address issues and relationships that have served to attract young people into activities such as trafficking drugs through county lines.

Councillor Benham recommended that Cabinet approve the proposal to invest £750,000 over a period of three financial years to enable the Adolescent Safeguarding approach to be developed.  This will give the opportunity to test an innovative approach ensuring it is evaluated and financially stable.

The investment will bring together a multidisciplinary service under one management structure.  This will include youth services, Youth Offending Services and targeted child health.  These will ensure early intervention and will cover mental health services.

The Service will work closely with schools and the police using data and intelligence to identify children who without early intervention may become susceptible to exploitation from gangs or individuals later in development.

Projects and programmes will support and divert young people and their families so that they will be more able to prevent problems occurring and break the cycles of violence and exploitation.  The Service will continue to work with those youngsters already involved in criminal activity to reduce the risk of reoffending and aspire to rehabilitation.  The approach via the recommended investment is to better predict, prevent, intervene and disrupt risk and vulnerability to the young people of Havering.

For the reasons set out in the report,

Cabinet:

i.                 Approved the approach outlined in the Report and the request for resources allocated to Children’s Services, to enable the development of a multi-disciplinary adolescent safeguarding approach to address serious youth violence and exploitation. This would be the mechanism through which to deliver the actions contained in the Serious Group Violence and Knife Crime strategy relating to children and young people, approved at Cabinet in April 2019.

ii.                Agreed £750,000 funding over two calendar years (three financial years) over which time this approach will be fully evaluated and other (external) sources of funding can be explored. Following this, the service will be core funded from an allocation of demographic growth and a permanent budget adjustment to carry this work forward. Refer to financial implications and risks at section four of the report.