Yvette Cooper announces young futures programme to prevent crime among young people.
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A unit dedicated to preventing violent crime among young people will be established by the Government, to give teenagers the best start in life, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said.
The “young futures” unit will include setting up youth hubs and identifying those most at risk of being drawn into violence, exploitation, crime and anti-social behaviour.
Ms Cooper said teenagers today have it “much, much harder” than previous generations, because they face pressures from social media, county lines, and child criminal exploitation.
The young futures programme is a 10-year vision, about how we prevent young people being drawn into crime in the first place, and also about how we give their future back
Speaking to The Guardian, she said: “It’s part of our cross-government mission to halve serious violence and also rebuild confidence in policing and the criminal justice system.
“As part of that, the young futures programme is a 10-year vision, about how we prevent young people being drawn into crime in the first place, and also about how we give their future back.”
Plans for young futures hubs have previously been proposed by the Labour Party, and at last year’s party conference Ms Cooper announced an ambition to spend £100 million on the policy, which also aims to improve mental health services for young people.
Teenagers have it “much, much harder” than previous generations because of knives, mental health pressures and social media, Yvette Cooper has said, as she announced plans for a new unit to prevent violent crime among young people.
After the deaths of young people in stabbings in Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Croydon, Cooper told the Guardian she was initiating a new cross-government “young futures” unit to be based in the Home Office, as part of the ambition to halve violent crime in a decade.
She described the recent killing of three children in Southport as “deeply traumatic and just absolutely awful”.
Speaking from a youth centre in the Manchester suburb of Gorton, Cooper said there were links between knife crime and poor treatment of mental health conditions, with the current state of provision causing “serious challenges”.
As part of the push, the home secretary will tell councils and police forces they have until Christmas to put proposals in place to tackle crime among young people.
New Home Office guidelines to be in force by the end of the year will set out how networks of police, mental health professionals, local schools, youth offending teams and charities can work together to help steer teenagers away from crime.