Cuts to children’s services have made the root causes of violence worse

Analysis: Boris Johnson’s move to increase police funding overlooks factors drawing young people into violence, Lizzie Dearden writes

Experts and community leaders say cuts have deprived children of safe places to meet (iStock)

The link between government funding cuts to the police and rising violence has been repeatedly drawn, but emerging evidence suggests that other forms of austerity may have played a role.

New figures released by the YMCA showed that spending on youth services across England is to reach its “lowest point in a generation”.

The spending, covering youth clubs, recreational and leisure activities, has fallen from an annual average of £7.8m in 2010 to £2.45m this year – amounting to a 90 per cent cut in some places.

The YMCA said the services were a “vital lifeline” for young people, providing them with support, advice and a place to go when they need it most.

While beneficial for any child, the provision takes on an added importance in deprived areas experiencing gang activity and criminal exploitation.

Former gang member Gavin McKenna is among those warning of the impact of youth club closures.

“Youth clubs are missing, there’s no safe place in their communities to go,” he previously told The Independent. “When I was young [in the 2000s], even when I was up to no good, it was a place where you could go and nothing would happen.”

Junior Smart, of youth charity the St Giles Trust, said a lack of safe spaces to meet leaves teenagers on the streets, warning: “They’re on the street corners, they’re in the takeaways, they’re congregating and that’s where you get trouble.

“There are petty arguments that might have even started online and violence is how it’s resolved.”

Other experts warn that where public services shrink back, a vacuum is created that allows gang “elders” to step in.

Simon Ford, of the government’s Violence and Vulnerability Unit, admitted last year young people who feel abandoned may see gangs “as a form of protective service”.

“They’ll befriend them, give them money, give them gifts, security and friendship,” he warned. “Very quickly that turns into debt bondage and they’re made to work [in drug dealing].”

The increased use of children by “county lines” gangs to transport drugs and cash has been linked to rising knife possession and stabbings across Britain.

A national unit has been set up to combat the brutal trade, while the government is increasing the number of police officers on the streets and pushing the use of stop and search.

But senior officers privately name austerity as among the drivers of violence and say they cannot address the root causes of knife crime on their own.

Without giving children meaningful activities and safe spaces to keep them away from gangs, the cycle of violence will continue.