Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on improving multi-agency teams to improve (a) early intervention and (b) support for young people.

Effective joint working, at both a cross-Government and local agency level, is critical to ensuring that effective early intervention and support for young people is delivered.

These values are at the heart of the Young Futures Programme, which is bringing departments together from across Government (including the Department for Education, Department for Health and Social Care, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office), to establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships.

The Young Futures Programme will bring local partners together across England and Wales to intervene earlier, ensuring vulnerable children and young people are identified and offered support in a more systematic way, as well as creating opportunities for young people in their communities, through the provision of open access to mental health and careers support.

Young Futures Prevention Partnerships will look to build on the excellent multi-agency working delivered through Violence Reduction Units and the Serious Violence Duty, and using the strong networks that have been created to improve how we identify, reach, and support young people at risk of being drawn into crime.