Boris sets out his plans to tackle youth crime in London

Youth crime recurred as an issue throughout the London mayoral campaign, not least because the tally of young people being killed in the capital continued to rise as Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone fought it out on the hustings.

It was also an issue which was never going to provide “quick wins” for Boris on his election in May.

But today, after spending a few months taking soundings on the issue, the London Mayor has unveiled an action plan for tackling youth crime, as featured in this morning’s Sun and previewed in last Friday’s Evening Standard.

Flanked by Sir Paul Stephenson, the Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Kit Mathouse, the Deputy Mayor for Policing, and (Liberal Democrat) James Kempton, London Councils’ Member for Children and Young People, Boris announced “Time for Action” in the same community hall in Edmonton in which he officially launched his mayoral campaign back in March.

The plan covers the following five themes:

1. Giving young offenders in prison for the first time the life tools that will enable careers other than professional criminality.
2. A more co-ordinated and assertive effort to tackle truancy.
3. Working towards getting more children in care to go to university (rather than prison).
4. Promoting self-respect and character in young people, with the help of organisations such as the Scouts, Girl Guides and Police Cadets.
5. Encouraging children to be more active on the basis that healthy bodies lead to healthy minds, and sport can act as a unifying influence.

Twinned with practical measures such as highly visible policing and operations to target those carrying knives and other weapons, this marks a concerted effort on Boris’s part to tackle the long term root causes of youth crime in London. He said:

“There are no magic answers to these deep rooted problems and there will no doubt be amendments and additions to the measures I am proposing today. However I hope ‘Time For Action’ will be the first step to achieving the fundamental long-term change that is profoundly needed so that we can take pride in every young person and ensure they reach their full potential.”

You can read the proposals in full on the GLA website  and a consultation has now opened to which all interested parties are invited to submit their responses.

Jonathan Isaby

Comments

[Rupert Matthews]

It is good to see groups such as the Scouts being involved. I recall when Labour and LibDem councillors in London refused to have anything to do with the Scouts on the grounds that they were 'a militaristic organisation'.

[clown]

What? He did something serious? Wonders will never cease.

[DavidRHayes]

Quite an impressive plan, can't see much wrong with it.

The "Boris/Tories can never do anything right" clan will pick holes in it I'm sure, or say that well he didn't think of it, or the usual drivel of those programmed to simply be anti Tory regardless of the actual policies.

But what can you do?

[Louise]

Quite like it, and if indeed it was Boris' own work then he deserves some credit for something. I'm critical of the Party at the moment but Boris is obviously not bored yet.

[Emma-Jane Cross, Chief Executive of Beatbullying]

Whilst the Mayor’s plans clearly prioritise funding tackling youth violence, his commitments must go further to deal with the problem. He clearly understands the need to provide guidance and programmes to steer young people away from violence, gangs and knife crime, but there is simply not enough focus on this. Knife crime is cited as the tip of what the Mayor calls a “pyramid of violence”, but at Beatubullying we believe we need to see more real preventative work targeted at tackling the behaviours at the bottom of the pyramid.

At Beatbullying, we know that the anti-social behaviours at the bottom of the pyramid can escalate to more serious violent crime without suitable and sustained intervention. Instead of fire-fighting with the consequences once a young person has reached the tip of the pyramid, Beatbullying believes it is far more logical, and effective, to tackle the causes and problems that have led a young person to that position.

The Mayors vision of hope for the youth of London will only come to fruition with an integrated approach from parents, teachers and the third sector, all acknowledging the cold, hard facts of gateway behavior to work closely with the perpetrators to tackle bullying and youth violence head on helping to create a greater and safer capital.

[frasergirl]

The idea that a knife/gun-wielding young hoodlum is going to join the sea scouts is pretty much New Tory Paradigm writ large.