A storm is coming...

You know that feeling when you watch a movie and you hear rumbling – it’s always just before the scare comes. It’s low, a bit hard to hear but it’s there and you brace yourself…get ready for the ‘jump’. I can hear it now. I hear it every day and I know what’s coming!

We are facing a huge surge in youth violence. We’re already seeing the start of it – reports across the country of stabbings, an increase in shootings and high levels of murder. But it feels different than before – and we’re unprepared. Younger victims, younger perpetrators, bigger knives, easier access to firearms and fuelled by social media and the pandemic.

Since the beginning of lockdown, we were all faced with having to make changes in our lives, both at home and at work. Everyone adapted. The non-techies (and grandparents) all managed to get online and start using videocalls and Teams – a close friend of mine even started leaving her WiFi on every day instead of switching it off once she was done ‘looking on the internet’. I was impressed. We’ve all become accustomed to waiting at least 2 hours for our takeaways (cold) and wearing facemasks everywhere. Like true Brits we queued outside shops in the rain or the blistering heat waiting for Tesco to open or to be allowed into the ‘little’ Sainsburys because there were already two people in the first aisle. We rinsed Amazon (I know that’s not just me) for everything we might need (and random stuff) but couldn’t get in the shops and we slowly started changing our homes to make them into workspaces. We watched YouTube tutorials on cutting hair and applying acrylic nails. ‘Covid-hair/eyebrows/nails/weight’ became a ‘thing’. We adapted. But so did everyone else – including those who preyed on children for drug-running.

Drug markets and territory have changed. Areas ‘owned’ by certain gangs or lines were given a welcome break initially – places became ‘dry’ with limited access to drugs, drug-supply related crime dropped in areas where there had been high levels of gang/county lines activity (violence, drug possession, weapons and acquisitive) and for a brief period, things were quiet. But for those who earn their living from the exploitation of the vulnerable, they remained committed to making money and therefore needed to make the relevant adjustments to enable their ‘business’ to continue to flourish.

Young people became ‘bait’ – during lockdown they weren’t allowed out and so the ages of those targeted changed. They needed people who could be seen out and about without question. We saw an increase in food delivery drivers on mopeds being used, adult suppliers buying ‘hi-vis’ jackets and making out they were key workers so they could move freely through the streets without raising suspicion. We’ve even seen drug dealers posing as residential care workers in children’s homes and supported lodgings to recruit as reported in the media last year. Additionally, the use of social media in order to recruit, sell and manage their markets became increasingly more popular.

The levels of threats made over social media have also increased. YouTube and TikTok openly displaying warring children ‘sending’ for each other – faces covered, lyrics plastered on the video and baby-faced kids holding knives as big as they are. Bragging about their 'numbers' and the serious acts of violence that they have meted out. ‘Beefing’ local groups in their home towns and making direct threats of serious violence shared across various platforms for all to see - making it harder for those involved to walk away and an urgent sense of needing to ‘save face’. This was all so easy during lockdown – they wouldn’t have to face these people any time soon, they can say what they want and not have to see that person at school or on the train the next day. So confidence levels grew, threats became more serious and the comments, shares and likes only added fuel to the fire. The relevant social media sites continue to fail to acknowledge the rising levels of violence and deny that their platforms fuel the issue. But then restrictions relaxed, schools re-opened and we all became a little bit freer. Now they must face their enemies. But they don’t want to do that without being armed. And so it begins…

The search for weapons...recruiting adults to buy/steal them from superstores, utilising the postal services to buy from Amazon, Ebay and Wish or simply removing them from their own kitchen. The number of parents seeking help after finding blades hidden in their child’s bedroom and not knowing what to do has surged. Knife crime in 2020 was at a ten-year high with over 46,000 offences recorded in England and Wales in one year. 46,000 – and these are just the ones who were caught and where offences were reported. Prosecutions for these offences remain lower than they should be because, despite sometimes there being a lot of witnesses, nobody saw anything

Only recently, Sky News reported on the increase of the use of firearms in the UK. In a three-year period (2018-2021) over 2000 gun-related incidents were recorded for children – including firearm possession. During the current pandemic, from March 2020, over 650 children have been arrested for firearms – with the youngest being just 12. Additionally, the number of thefts relating to decommissioned or private firearms has increased across England and Wales. It was recently reported that police and the NCA are locating factories where these guns are being converted into viable firearms which are then being touted on the streets of the UK for ￡3000 a time.

Things have changed. County lines aren’t so ‘country’ any more – they’re local. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still happening, our children are still being groomed, recruited and trafficked across the country to supply drugs in various towns and villages across the UK. So don’t lose sight of that. But there are emerging issues and signs that those lines are blurred. Previously, the street-level workforce were overseen by outsiders – older boys or young adults travelling in from London or other larger cities (Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, etc) and our own young people had increasingly high rates of ‘missing’ for days and weeks (and in some cases, months) at a time, were being arrested in places half of us had never heard of, far from home and carrying large amounts of drugs and cash. But now it’s localised. They’re our young people supplying and moving drugs in their own communities. They’re our young people recruiting even younger children locally – in our schools, our parks and on our own doorsteps. I’ve seen young people cuckooing their own homes – leaving their own families as targets of violence and threats. Arrests for PWITS but being found with only a few bags at a time so they go to the phones and the phones provide evidence of the supply. This leads to an increase in severity of charges – more and more being charged with Concerned in the Supply rather than Possession with Intent.

So now we need to adapt again. Our approach needs to be different and we need to be confident in the delivery so that we can make our young people feel safe in their own communities and empower their parents to take control of the situation. We’ve heard a lot about ‘contextual safeguarding’ over the last year. But this starts in the home – we need our parents to be working with us, not against us. They need to feel that they can reach out for support and will be heard. It should not be a reason to close cases with social care or not proceed to Child Protection. It should not be a reason to not arrest or charge for criminal offences committed by children and young people (and neither should NRM’s but that’s another story!).

We also need parents to take more responsibility, be more accountable for their children and more open and transparent with the professionals around them. Contextual safeguarding does not give parents a ‘let off’ – a blanket excuse to take limited responsibility for where their kids are, who they’re with and what they’re doing. They need to be monitoring their bank accounts, reporting suspicious amounts of money coming in and going out, checking their online shopping accounts and having oversight of what parcels are coming into the home. Questions need to be asked – where did they get the expensive coat/scooter and not be so na?ve when they’re told they swapped their ￡150 2yr old coat for a new Canada Goose or that their friend gave them a ￡500 electric scooter because they didn’t want it. They need to question why their child is posting pictures of large amounts of cash or with new clothes that they didn’t buy for themselves – especially when shops are closed – how are they getting new trainers, coats etc. Checking their rooms, their phones, their social media accounts. Knowing who their kids friends are, where they live, who their parents are. Taking responsibility and accountability for their children when they’re picked up by police, attending the police station as appropriate adult rather than leaving it to professionals to cover. There are some that seem completely oblivious, uninterested and ignorant to some of the issues their children are experiencing and there are some that say they are desperate for help, crying out to teachers and police but then refusing to engage with social care and intervention services when offered. The same ones who don’t report when they find weapons and drugs in their child’s bedroom. The same ones who don’t report when they’re children are collected in cars or staying out until the early hours. The same ones who will pointing the finger of blame firmly in the professionals face if their child comes to harm.

We are working with children who are scared, who are being controlled and threatened in the one place they should feel safe and without the support from parents. Children who are increasingly turning to the carrying and use of weapons to assert themselves. But we are also working with children who are becoming increasingly dangerous, reckless and seeking retribution at the highest level for ‘disses’ and irrelevant conflict. This isn’t just limited to boys – I’ve seen a number of videos shared across various social media platforms by females who have recorded their male counterparts fighting, threatening others, showing off with weapons and displaying them like a badge of honour. Females who will act as ‘go-betweens’ with opposing groups, inciting violence and increasing the tension.

This isn’t gang warfare. You can’t write this off as gang-related or county lines. It’s localised group violence – between local groups of children who have conflict. There is a difference and if professionals chalk it up as gang violence you are going to miss vital opportunities to create calm. Gangs are organised and controlled with levels of hierarchy and structure. These groups are not. They are mismanaged, reckless and seek support in numbers – however that may come. Utilising whoever is near to them – calling out on social media for additional people to join them, recording themselves openly fighting on trains and in the streets – showing their faces, calling themselves by their own names and sharing it across the internet like they think the authorities don’t know how to access Instagram or Snapchat. Openly bragging about their violence without a care in the world. It breeds anger and the need to seek revenge.

Many frontline workers know that things have changed, that the young people on our caseloads are ‘different’. They’ve been without structure, routine and authority for a year. Some of them didn’t bother returning to school in September or, where they did, they had lost all motivation and interest and this was exacerbated by further lockdowns in December. Even those who had excellent attendance, high levels of attainment and academically bright have lost their way. So they’re home – around stressed out parents – either furloughed, struggling financially, in chaotic homes with multiple children (or completely the opposite and being the only child and now desperately lonely) or where there parents remain working. But we’re all feeling it.

Everywhere we go, every time we switch on the TV, every time we just want to quickly go into a shop…it’s all a bit…shit! Everyone is talking about it. Everyone! I’m sick of hearing about Covid but then I’ll go into a shop and talk to the shopkeeper about it and so we’re all guilty of the same thing. Our children are trying to be resilient – it’s hard enough being a teenager in the current times anyway without this additional pressure and when they want to just relax, not think about a pandemic and death and how everything is different they can’t turn to us adults. Because we’re struggling too. We want to encourage them to stick to lockdown and not be out and about, we want to make sure they have facemasks and hand gel and we want to make sure they’re safe. But they feel nagged. They want to go into school and just see their mates – but they have to walk in/out certain doors and certain ways, can’t hang out in certain places, and can’t freely roam through the corridors like they used to. So they just don’t bother.

So they’re out. And there’s nothing to do. They can’t go to the shops or cinema, play football or go to the gym – it’s all closed. They aren’t around teachers all day so they don’t have the structure or need to be respectful and can speak and act how they want without recourse. In terms of the criminal justice system, an increased number of RUI’s that just disappear into a black hole, CR after CR after CR after CR so by the time they get to a YCC or Court they’re already ‘prolific’ and realise that there’s limited consequences or action for criminal behaviour. Court cases taking up to two years to be dealt with, Court Orders in place where they don’t have to come to an office to report and barely need to even get out of bed to count as a contact. An inability for professionals to undertake some real intervention because offices and public places are closed, it’s not appropriate to undertake work in the home at times and, during winter months, young people weren’t so open to going for a walk. Some services expecting children to open up and talk openly about drugs, mental health, criminal behaviour, emotional issues etc on the phone instead of in person like before just doesn’t work. You don’t know if that person is in a safe place to talk, is not surrounded by friends or family and also is not recording the conversation on speaker phone to be played out later (yes, it happens!).

It all feels a bit lawless. This is where we need to come together – we all carry the risk of these young people. It’s not owned by YOT or social care or the schools, it’s not down to the police or CPS to resolve these issues. It’s on us all, every one of us working with young people need to take our share of the problem. We need to share information between us – we say it all the time but the reality is that it just doesn’t always happen (some worse than others!!). We need to give our young people structure and routine again. We need to start opening offices – seeing them in safe spaces – for us and for them. Looking at the structure of teams - we've had the exploitation teams but have they effectively managed risk and violence? We need to look at shared risk assessments and safety plans to get them back into full-time school timetables but also supporting the schools in their management of these young people whilst in their buildings. They can't do this by themselves and I've seen some amazing work in some of the schools who are open to receiving support and honest in their fears and concerns for their students. We need to increase the use of bail conditions and restrictive requirements on Court Orders for certain young people and offences to enforce structure and risk management and also use them as opportunities to give them ‘an out’ – I’ve had parents and young people begging for tags or exclusions so they can have an excuse to say ‘no’. We need to stop using multiple CR’s or Outcome 22 for offences where we know there are clear issues and concerns. Prevention is critical but it’s not always the answer. We need to be honest about what the right level of prevention is – dealing with a known drug dealer (however, not convicted) by way of Outcome 22 or CR offers no level of prevention or intervention for that young person and all it does it provides them with a status for Snapchat that states ‘bust case’.

So if we can’t prevent we need to use other tactics to divert, disrupt and safeguard our children.

Professionals also need to understand the changes in these young people. Work with each other, engage with training and support from local services as the issues are local. We will never know it all and every time we think we are ‘on it’ rest assured these young people will ‘switch it up’. Engaging in a web seminar from services that have never even visited your borough/authority or had no engagement with local services about what the issues are or completing ‘county lines’ training three years ago is simply not enough. We need to empower each other and manage the risk internally across authorities.

The difference between a S18 GBH/wounding and the loss of/taking of a child’s life is often millimetres, or even just sheer luck/miracle. I don’t want to take that risk. We need to act now. A storm is coming!