Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to help young people exit gangs.

The Serious Violence Strategy sets out a range of initiatives including the Ending Gang Violence and Exploitation (EGVE) programme to support young people to exit gang lifestyles. This includes working with Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on a range of initiatives including sports and arts programmes, and work with the Department for Work and Pensions to continue to support work coaches for gang affected young people.

Through our EGVE Fund we support local initiatives. Last year we supported 16 projects including gang and county lines awareness training for young people, practitioners and foster carers; community sports and arts provisions; mentoring programmes; and young people’s safeguarding workshops.

We have also provided funding for Redthread to expand their youth violence intervention scheme outside of London. This initiative involves youth workers being embedded in Accident and Emergency departments to talk to young victims of violence at the critical ‘teachable’ moment. They offer intervention support to all assault victims aged from 13 to 20 to prevent them from joining a gang or to help established gang members reassess their life choices. In addition, we are funding Young People’s Advocates in London, Manchester and Birmingham to enable direct support to young women and girls who have been victims, or are at risk of, sexual violence by gangs, including those involved in county lines.