Children as young as 13 are leading violent county lines drug gangs ac | UK | News
A specialist, children under the age of 13, school exceptions and disappeared “ghost students”, causing a explosion in exploitation, the severe district lines manage drug gangs. Former Children’s Commissioner England Mother Longfield, young people who barely headed for drug networks, up to 80 miles of supply lines controlled, ordeal actions ordered and branded the machete, he said.
Baroness Longfield said: “Now we see 13 or 14 years old. Peer warned that the scale of the crisis is now so violent that there is no touched town or city in England ”.
In some regions, police and social workers say that the criminal model is turned upside down and when the children are the king of children, old gang leaders operate behind the scenes. The number of children referred to for criminal exploitation increased by 50% in two years and rose from 10,140 to 15,700.
However, Barones Longfield said: “These figures are the visible part of the iceberg.” Many children caught in the district lines are never officially marked. Some quietly scared and others passed through the cracks of a school system in the crisis … Tens of thousands of “ghost children”, including tens of “ghost children”, who stopped going to school during Covid.
The latest figures show that school exceptions are rocketed and exposure thousands of vulnerable children to grooming and gang recruitment. According to government data, 10,900 permanent exceptions on 2022/23 – an increase of 16% compared to the previous year and 955.000 suspension (temporary exceptions) – 21% increase in 2021/2.
Last year, 471 children under the age of six and less were among those who were permanently excluded. Speaking to the Family Talk Podcast, which is operated by child care provider care visions, Baroness Longfield said, “When a child is removed from school, they lose protection. Now they are seen. Then the gangs come in.”
He warned that the exclusion of school is now one of the greatest procedure of gang exploitation and described it as a “direct pipeline .. “If you are not at school – teachers do not watch, no structure, no support – you are exposed.” Since Covid locking, the number of children who are not regularly found in the school has increased an estimated three -fold increase.
Today, one -fifth student is now constantly disappearing and missing 10% or more. In the UK, approximately 170,000 children are seriously classified and missed most of their education. However, a recent Educational Policy Institute report found that approximately 300,000 children aged 5-15 years of education in 2023 and 400,000 children were completely higher than 400,000 children.
Baroness Longfield, student shipping units – the only option for excluded children – offering only a few hours of training a week, leaving their children vulnerable, isolated and easy targets for drug gangs. Authorized, the police or social services are not usually established for appropriate assistance, he added.
Baroness Longfield told Podcast that a desperate mother paid £ 300 to save her 15 -year -old son from a gang. He said: “He went to the group, met the older children, delivered the money and said,” Leave it alone. “And they did it. But he had to do it … There was no help.”
The family later established a support group for other parents. Baroness Longfield was concluded with youth services and said that some families “finance their own interventions”, paying to young workers, mentoring and even security, because the councils are no longer provided.
Since 2010, more than 1,200 youth centers have been closed in the UK – a decrease of approximately 75% in some regions. Barones Longfield said: uz We leave the children to defend them for themselves. And they are taken by people who will ruin their lives. ” The Young Lives Charity Commission, headed by peer, now wants the government to take action urgently.
A national “Sure Start Plus” program for young people calls an end of the “exclusion culture özen for new laws and schools, especially for primary children to punish children. So far, the government has promised to establish 50 support centers, but Baroness Longfield warned that the help has not come fast enough: “We need an emergency action.” Peer demanded that the prevention is vital and to coordinate national leadership between health, police, schools and social care to prevent exploitation.
