Knife crime up with young people, AIBU to assume you didn't have to be a brain surgeon to see this was coming under the current Conservative government?

[LDNmummy]

ARTICLE HERE

I know a lot of young people who rely on state funded services to keep them afloat. For example, kids who need help and guidance upon leaving state care, or kids from very deprived areas or disjointed family and social backgrounds.

We are very lucky to have a welfare state that in the past, could provide for these young people and fund projects and organizations to help these young people fall into good patterns of living and pursue lifestyles that benefited not just themselves, but also their local community's.

I mean organizations that helped find avenues into higher education, help with housing, help with finding employment and general mentoring and social outlets etc..

With funding to these types of resources so drastically cut, these young people were bound IMO to fall into crime and other bad lifestyle choices. For instance, turning to crime to make quick money in order to survive and joining gangs in order to have a form of support network and social outlet when they otherwise feel alone, isolated and vulnerable.

How can cuts like these be justified when it so obviously has such detrimental outcomes for the young people who need help the most?

I may not be able to come back to this straight away but am just so saddened by the already noticeable rise in violence and crime involving young people that I just wanted to vent.

Do you work with these young people? IMHO- it's not money that helps them- it's giving them a chance and getting them out of abusive households- Unfortunately parents get too many second chances which leaves the young person completely damaged.
If these children could be taken sooner and adopted rather than intervention in adolesence when the damage has been done they would have a chance

Direct money isn't the answer but the money allotted to the services that support them has been drastically cut by the current government. They really have no idea about the bigger picture and consequences of what they are doing - or maybe they do but just don't care.

I went to a community school in inner London so knew many kids in care and some were my closest friends.

My DH is a teacher so he does work with teenagers from backgrounds such as these and I just happen to come from a background which means I know a lot of kids like these generally.

I saw personally the impact the rise in Uni fee's had on many of them who felt that even if they were thinking about furthering their education, they could no longer do it. I see a big rise in the amount of young people who feel that society doesn't care for them or their welfare and it is very saddening.

Giving money directly to these kids was never really the answer, but apart from schemes such as EMA, that has never really been the case. With youth centres and organizations that deal with youth homelessness and abuse loosing massive amounts of funding, where will these young people go now?

I knew a lot of kids at my school for instance who didn't have parental figures due to varying reasons who highly relied on state funded services to help them once they left the care system at 16 (these kid were literally out there in the world alone apart from SS). Help finding accommodation, employment, social outlets and furthering education is dwindling. Essentially whole support networks for young people are being destroyed when they need it the most.

The title of this thread is misleading - these aren't Tory cuts. They're cuts by Local Authorities (various Parties). This is about local spending priorities - not all Councils are making the same cuts (idle aside: do you, reader, know what cuts your own council is making in youth services? Did you take part in consultations and/or lobby your councillor).

The article is also a classic example of scaremongering - it's "bracing themselves" for some future event that may/may not happen.

The opening post here also doesn't pick up on the interesting stats in the article - the recent increases were 4%/9%. Shocking indeed. But fortunately, somewhat less than what the same article quotes for the increases in the late Labour years - 30% (though that over two years, not one, but still roughly 15% pa - or getting on for twice the current rate.

Yes, it's local authorities making the direct cuts but it's because they have less money because of government policy.

LDN, would suggest you get the latest copy of Private Eye (and possibly other back catalogues). They have a section called "Rotten Boroughs" which always makes very interesting reading as its non party political and gives a factual account of what the councils get up to with our money.

Considering there's a London Borough in there virtual every issue, particularly in the depraved wards, it may give you an idea as to where the cuts aren't being made and confirm the earlier postings that this is not necessarily down to the current government..

Whoops! Meant Deprived not Depraved! LOL x

manicbmc: but where this cuts fall is up to the individual council, and not all are making cuts of this type.

(Hence my question aside - not wanting to derail this thread, so inviting people to think about it, not necessarily post - what is YOUR council doing? Did you take part in consultations? Did you lobby?)

The alternative would be to increase Council Tax, general taxation, or for the Government to borrow more. It's probably a separate thread to ask for which of these would be your preferred solution. No party has come up with (costed) alternatives to the cuts; but Town Halls have come up with a variety of prioritisation strategies.

But, as the article linked in OP says, the rate of increase has fallen by nearly 50%. Beware of both the scare-monger and Chicken-Licken.

Enough with the excuses. Knife crime is caused by the individuals who commit it; mainly because they want something which is not theirs.