PCC announces funding to help divert 500 young people from being knife crime victims or offenders

Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping says funding is vital to help reduce the number of young people becoming victims of violent crime.

His comments followed the announcement of £350,000 funding aimed at diverting up to 500 children and young people away from violent offending.

Local authority youth services have been hit during the decade of austerity that saw council budgets cut by up to 40%. This has been a key factor in the rise of both youth offending and young people become victims of knife crime.

Mr Tipping told Police Oracle it was vital funding was restored to give young people diversions – and take pressure off police services.  

“The police have faced big cuts in their budgets but they are relatively small compared to what people have had to face in councils. As a non-statutory service, youth services have been hit harder than others."

He revealed that a lobbying campaign had been mounted with council leaders earlier this year to influence the Comprehensive Spending Review that is held every three years but was abandoned due to Brexit uncertainty.

Mr Tipping said the issue of youth funding wouldn’t go away: “A healthy dialogue with colleagues in government was under way for the CSR that never was. We need to join up provision for young people and invest in it more. We anticipate there will be a CSR soon.”

It came with the announcement of £350,000 by Mr Tipping for community safety work led by church leaders to confront knife crime and serious youth violence.

Churches and community groups will focus on crime hotspots in Nottinghamshire, working with public authorities and partners. They will also support and respond to families and communities affected by violence.

Thee funding includes £250,000 for grassroots community safety projects from the Community Safety Fund for 2020-21 and a further £100,000 from Nottinghamshire's Violence Reduction Unit (VRU).

Mr Tipping said the new fund was not a direct replacement for local authority cash.

“It’s not general youth prevention work but for a number of young people, around 500, that we think are at risk of either carrying a knife or having a knife used on them. Keeping people away from crime is a responsibility of mine.”