Youth and community safety: How can we best support our young people?
Young people are often noted as perpetrators of anti-social behaviour in their local communities, and often vilified in media. There have been, of course, some worrying news regarding young people. The recent death of 80-year-old Bhim Kohli in Leicestershire, and the subsequent charging of a boy as young as 14, highlights a growing fear and panic among communities surrounding young people.
The tragic death of Bhim Kohli, is however, less a sign of rise of a violent and perpetrating class of young people, but rather a failure in dealing with reports in anti-social behaviour. It was reported that Mr Kohli ‘is understood to have previously reported anti-social behaviour to police after being abused, spat at and had rocks thrown at him by youths’. This shows how important it is to strengthen our response to anti-social behaviour in our communities, and if not taken seriously, can lead to severe and potentially fatal consequences.
What is more evident however, is that young people across the country are facing growing challenges in mental health, poverty, exclusions and loneliness. A growing storm of social media algorithms, as reported by the BBC, showing ‘violent and disturbing material’ to boys as young as 16, and a growing number of school exclusions, that ‘rise by fifth in England in past year’ show an increasingly fraught environment for our young people.1,2
As the centre for crime and justice studies notes ‘it is a widely held premise that young people and anti-social behaviour (ASB) are synonymous’ however, as we are aware, young people are very often the silent victims of anti-social behaviour. 3
This paints a worrying picture for our young people, research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that councils are spending, because of exclusions, increasing amounts on education outside mainstream schools “where the quality and safety is less guaranteed”. We also know that this doesn’t affect all young people equally. It is reported that children from low-income backgrounds, those with special educational needs and with mental health issues are most likely to miss mainstream learning. This includes the fact that pupils on free school meals (FSM) are almost five times more likely to be excluded than their non-FSM classmates.
Time spent outside of mainstream education, with the routine and safety of school, means huge problems for exploitation, grooming and criminal activity. Our young people are already being fed a huge amount of disturbing and violent content online, one 16-year-old told BBC news “you get the picture in your head, and you can’t get it out. It stains your brain”.
Time spent out of education, and onto our streets, with little to occupy their time, can also create a perception among some in the community, of a rise in anti-social behaviour, as we know it is ‘suggested that young people gather in groups at night because it makes them feel more secure’ however, these groups are ‘perceived by some communities and sectors of the community as being intimidatory’. We know that perception is a problem with anti-social behaviour, and that this alone can create fear and isolation in communities.
Those excluded, and of the most vulnerable sections of our society, are often now in precarious temporary accommodation, latest government figures put this at 131,370 children in temporary accommodation.4 This adds a layer of insecurity and precarity in these young people’s lives, this temporary accommodation often has very little space and as Professor Lakhanpaul from University College London articulates that, ‘Parents are frightened to send their children to playgrounds, for fear of where some are located’.5
Supporting our Young People
A suggested solution then, is to lead with support for our young people who are facing a myriad of problems. We are already seeing promising work out of government with the support for Infants and Parents Bill (https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3680) and the Schools (Mental Health Professionals) Bill (https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3525) which aim to improve advice and guidance and also mental health provision in schools. Better, destigmatised early preventative measures involving young people’s mental health could be key, young people in the UK have higher mental health need than ever, with the NHS reporting that 1 in 6 experienced a mental health problem in 2020.6 There is some important proposals out around reforms to the Mental Health Act 1983 which would be key to follow and keep of interest.7 Multi-agency working to better tackle youth unemployment, utilising partnerships between local services could also provide relief to this issue, which is another factor in young people’s wellbeing and therefore communities. Engaging with young people and families to consider barriers for attendance is also another suggestion; we know exclusions affect the poorest and most vulnerable, and that these issues can often cascade into each other.
Research by the Scottish Government highlights the need for early intervention measures, also the ‘importance of nurturing and educating young people with youth intervention schemes’ considering ‘things like deprivation’. Examples of this included projects between Stagecoach for evening activities and focuses on the lack of youth and community services and spaces. Temporary accommodation is also a huge problem for the wellbeing of our young people, reports from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Households in Temporary Accommodation and the Champion Project have called for a legally enforceable specification for temporary accommodation. This could go a long way into also safeguarding young people and therefore our communities. Reiterating the research from the Scottish Government, considering the increase in temporary accommodation it is perhaps even more pertinent to considered ways we can use multi-agency partners to provide community services and spaces. The local government associate (LGA) has produced a case study from North Tynside Council, where grant money was used in ‘Project Vita’, providing a safe and dry space as a drop-in facility, staffed by youth workers.8
Work to support our young people is not only necessary for their wellbeing therefore, but also to keep our communities safe safeguarding them without fear. These suggestions and collated research will helpfully inform a wider discussion and conversation, and hopefully lead to an open debate where issues can be raised and discussed at length to best support our young people, and consequently, our communities.
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gdqzxypdzo
[3] https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/09627250308553540.pdf
[5] https://magazine.ucl.ac.uk/championing-homeless-children-monica-lakhanpaul/
[7] https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9132/
