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Young Offenders: Crime Prevention

Answer

The Government recognises the importance of intervening early to prevent young people from being drawn into crime, using evidence-based support that responds to their individual needs. The Youth Endowment Fund’s Toolkit provides accessible evidence on the effectiveness of different approaches to preventing youth violence, including mentoring and interventions focused on children and young people’s social and emotional needs.

To support effective local delivery of these interventions we have provided over £66m this year to Violence Reduction Units and Serious Violence Duty partnerships. These partnerships use local Problem Profiles or Strategic Needs Assessments to identify the drivers of serious violence in their areas and develop a multi-agency response. They will then determine which interventions are most appropriate to address those needs and their delivery plans often include mentoring, mental health support and other forms of targeted early intervention.

We are also testing new means of identifying and supporting this cohort of children through our Young Futures Panel pilots, which went operational in over 50 local authorities in October 2025 and have so far reached over 1,700 young people, with thousands more on track to be supported before the end of the financial year.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

22413

Session

2026-27

Subjects

Crime prevention Mental health services Young offenders

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk