Annex B: Leeds seminar notes
We held a seminar in Leeds Town Hall on 26 January
2009 to discuss knife crime in the North of England. We heard
three presentations and held an open discussion with around 20
representatives from Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. A summary
of proceedings is set out below.
Cathy Elliott, Community Foundation for Merseyside
Cathy Elliott presented the work of the Community
Foundation for Merseyside. The Foundation was established in 1999
as a registered charity that acts as an intermediary between donors
and the community. It works with over 50 donors across
all sectors and currently delivers £4.5 million a year in
grant-making to around 1,000 community groups. It has 150 local
community volunteers.
It provides a community-led response to the issues
of street crime, gang culture and supports 'at risk' young people
in transforming their lives—essentially a youth crime prevention
scheme. It administers a programme of community grants, community
leader support, local capacity building and expertise sharing.
A cross-sector, multi-agency approach using a community engagement
model is more effective because it captures and uses expertise.
It was founded in partnership with Merseyside Police,
and is also partnered by the Liverpool Echo and the Tutu Foundation
UK, supported by Cherie Booth QC & George
Howarth MP and funded by Merseyside Police, the Home Office and
local Housing Associations. At a national level, it is partnered
by the Community Foundation Network and the Channel 4 Street Weapons
Commission.
Its projects include:
PAYES Plus Extra (September
'06 - April '07)
- 11 projects were funded at
approx. £1,000 each;
- 8,015 young people were engaged;
- 36% of young people involved were deemed 'at
risk'.
Operation Safe Space (Summer '07)
- 24 projects were funded at
approx. £1,000 each;
- Achieved an 11.3% reduction in anti-social behaviour;
- 2,140 young people were engaged.
Grassroots Activities
- Led by local community leaders
working with 'at risk' young people;
- Activities inspired and created by local leaders
and young people;
- Supporting and empowering local people finding
local solutions.
Achievements
- Creation of support networks
- e.g. youth mentoring;
- Creation of new project strategies;
- Self-esteem & confidence building;
- Creation of Training & Employment opportunities.
The Foundation operates across six boroughs in Merseyside,
which each have different issues, for example in Liverpool it
is gangs; in the Wirral a lack of opportunities for young people.
Their funders are mainly from the public sector but they were
hoping to secure their first private sector funder that week.
The Young Transformers Programme has demonstrated
a reduction in anti-social behaviour.
There are issues around drugs and alcohol and territoriality
but also there was nowhere for young people to go, and no community
support.
Agencies have worked with the Liverpool Echo to ensure
the paper puts across a balanced view of youth crime.
As part of the Tackling Knives Action Plan, the Foundation
is working with a youth forum in each of the six boroughs and
will be sharing this evidence in March. On 23 March there will
be an event in Liverpool where young people will be talking about
knife crime.
Question and Answer
In response to a question from Karen Buck MP about
dealing with the issue of postcode gangs in providing services
for young people, Cathy Elliott replied that they explore meeting
up in neural areas, for example they funded an away day in Yorkshire
for young men trying to avoid gangs.
In response to a question from Karen Buck MP about
how the Foundation fits in with the extended schools agenda, Cathy
Elliott replied that the Foundation does not yet work with extended
schools but is keen to have more partners round the table.
Mrs Ann Cryer MP noted that there are two groups
of young people in her constituency who are constantly fighting
and asked how this might be dealt with. Cathy Elliott noted the
findings of the recent Joseph Rowntree report, Young People
and territoriality in British Cities. The Foundation wants
to explore the implications around the finding that feuds are
passed down from generation to generation.
In response to the Chairman, Cathy Elliott said that
the Foundation has £100,000 for grant-making and costs. It
employs 16 members of staff. It received £25,000 in the spring
from the Home Office and £15,000 more recently.
Dr Fiona Lecky, Trauma Audit Research Network
For details of the data presented by Dr Lecky,
please see her written memorandum published in volume 2 of this
Report.
Open discussion session
In response to the Chairman, Dr Lecky said that only
a very small minority of victims are injured by intervening to
stop a fight. In some cases she has witnessed real intent (particularly
with ex-partners). The other big area of injuries (besides domestic
violence) is through fracas.
In response to the Chairman's question about data-sharing
between hospitals and the police, Dr Lecky said that the policy
within the Greater Manchester Police area is that, regardless
of the wishes of the patient, hospitals will report incidents
to the police where there is a serious threat to life or limb.
For more minor cases, they will report all cases in an anonymised
fashion (such as where it happened, type of weapon) to enable
the police to undertake preventative work in communities. Their
fear as doctors is that, if patients think the incident will be
reported to the police automatically, this may deter them from
seeking medical help.
Fabian Hamilton (MP for Leeds North-East) asked if
there is any data to suggest that carrying a knife makes you more
likely to be stabbed. Dr Lecky replied that patients often do
not give details of incidents and hospitals are not at liberty
to do routine searches.
Karen Buck MP asked if the nature of knife crime
is changing. Dr Lecky replied that she was surprised at the extent
to which kitchen knives were used in incidents, but from her experience
of 20 years in A&E it has not changed much otherwise.
In response to Mrs Ann Cryer MP, Dr Lecky said that
in the context of fracas, which is not premeditated, injuries
tend to be to the arms and legs rather than to the vital organs.
In response to Mrs Ann Cryer MP, Dr Lecky said that
glass is only used in 5-10% of cases and she has never personally
seen a case of bleeding to death from a glass wound.
In response to Mrs Ann Cryer MP, Dr Lecky said that
she would want all cases where there is a severe threat to life
or limb to be reported to the police, but not all incidents of
knife use, as this could be challenged under current patient confidentiality
rules.
Keith Lawrence, Leeds Community Safety, PC
Bob Bowman, West Yorkshire Police, and Peter Armstrong, Royal
Armouries Museum
Presenters told us about their award-winning Leeds
Weapons Awareness Programme. The Programme grew out of a conference
held in Leeds in 2004 where 120 people across agencies met to
discuss the issue of young people and knives. At the same time,
the Leeds Youth Offending Service was looking at weapon prevention
and became keen to adapt the Be Safe weapons prevention programme
being piloted by the London Borough of Newham to the Leeds context.
The programme is now delivered to all high schools
across Leeds. It is believed to be the largest-scale crime prevention
programme delivered in the UK.
PC Bob Bowman was one of the first officers to be
trained in the programme and he has now trained all of the Leeds
school officers and those throughout West Yorkshire. There is
close liaison between the police and youth workers to decide which
of them is the most appropriate agency to deliver a particular
session. They encountered some initial reluctance in schools who
feared the training could imply the school had a problem with
weapons but now all the secondary heads are on board, which in
turn has led to improved working and extension of the Safer Schools
Partnership. They have recently increased the number of Safer
Schools officers in Leeds from 11 to 22.
The programme affect young people's thought processes
about knives and they have seen an increase in young people reporting
other young people for carrying knives.
The Royal Armouries is a national museum that holds
around 100,000 articles including many weapons. They bring a lot
of things to the table as a museum: an element of neutrality as
opposed to police or schools; a level of credibility in their
role as a trusted disseminator of information (unlike the public
perceptions of Government statistics); and through the academics
working with them on these issues. Initially the organisation
CASAC delivered the Leeds Weapons Awareness Programme but when
they began to struggle with funding, the Royal Armouries took
it over and funded it themselves.
A lot of other museums are having similar thoughts,
for example the Royal Armouries Museum is currently working with
the Manchester Imperial War Museum and the Customs and Excise
museum.
With the help of the campaigner Pat Regan, they developed
'Impact Reality' as a resource for police to use with young people.
Displays in the museum have allowed parents visiting the museum
to raise the issue of knife crime with their children.
The Royal Armouries has also launched the 'No to
Knives' campaign, which involves running weapon prevention sessions
in the museum, training on detecting concealed weapons, working
with the youth service on adult training, working with the Youth
Offending Service on the Weapon Possession Prevention Programme
and are interested in the Safer Schools Partnership.
Question and Answer
In response to a question from the Chairman, we were
told that 10,000 young people have signed the No to Knives pledge
on the internet and 7,000 have signed on paper. It is currently
restricted to Yorkshire. They believed that 20,000 people have
completed the Weapons Awareness Programme.
In response to a question from the Chairman, we were
told that ethnicity is not a factor in street violence to the
same extent in West Yorkshire as in London, but there are occasionally
problems with gangs.
Open discussion session
Kate MacDonald (Manchester Youth Offending Service)
added that in Manchester there is a difference between the nature
of gun crime, which is gang-related, and knife crime, which is
not. Gang-related crime tends to involve members of the black
community, whereas the average profile of a knife-offender tends
to be a white, working-class male aged 22 or 23, with victims
aged around 30.
Assistant Chief Constable David Evans (West Yorkshire
Police) told the Committee that the picture is different in West
Yorkshire, partly because there are rural as well as urban communities.
Dennis Lewis (Leeds Youth Offending Service) told
us that he currently works with seven young knife offenders, six
of whom say they were carrying for protection (the other got drunk
and used a knife in a fight). Therefore, removing fear is key
to tackling knife carrying.
In response to Karen Buck MP's query about the transition
from primary to secondary school, PC David Brook (West Yorkshire
Police) noted that the rise in knife offences beginning in the
mid-1990s appears to coincide with the abolition of the middle-schools
tier in West Yorkshire in 1992. In his opinion, 10-12 is the key
risk age.
Kate MacDonald noted that it is fascinating to see
how much the situation varies from area to area, demonstrating
that solutions must be tailored to the local situation.
Phil Hull (No to Knives volunteer) noted that gangs
are often formed along area codes, which then escalates to violence.
The key age for intervention depends partly on the kind of area
- in a "bad" area, by the age of 16 kids will often
be already too involved in crime and it is too late to reach them.
Mark Cooper (No to Knives) noted that lots of young people witnessed
a stabbing in December on an estate in Phil's area - these are
the kinds of 'role models' these young people have.
ACC David Evans informed the Committee that West
Yorkshire Police carried out a survey of 5,000 children, 2% of
whom said they carried weapons on a regular basis, but 34% of
whom said they were worried about knives—showing the discrepancy
between fear and reality. 42% of knife offences in West Yorkshire
take place away from the street. 'Knife-enabled' crime, such as
glassings, are down significantly in West Yorkshire.
Cathy Elliott made a plea to all police forces across
the country to get involved in community work.
Yvonne Crowther said that the Cardinal Youth Club
have eight young people who will be going into schools to deliver
a weapons prevention programme to younger pupils, trained by police
officers. They hope to expand it out of Leeds.
Nadine Sargeant (Royal Armouries Museum) noted the
need to work with parents.
Mark Cooper told us about the 'final warning' programme
run at the Royal Armouries for young people. He believed there
has been an increase in people carrying weapons because of media
coverage of knife crime, but that there is a small core of young
people who will always carry knives.
Karen Buck MP said she was surprised at how little
work is done with young people on avoiding escalation, such as
anger management. Dennis Lewis replied that historically Youth
Offending Teams have done little work on prevention but this is
changing. Peter Armstrong said that often in the case of kitchen
knives, individuals lose their temper, go home and find a knife,
rather than carrying it all the time. Schools have identified
that many knife carriers are bullies or are bullied—there
is a need for more work on conflict resolution between young people.
The Chairman asked each participant to state one
key action they would like to see. The results were as follows:
- Early intervention (Peter Armstrong);
- Viewing each area's problems individually (Nadine
Sargeant);
- Better data-recording systems (Keith Lawrence);
- Early intervention (David Brook);
- More youth provision and for younger children
(Yvonne Crowther);
- Early intervention and more responsible media
reporting (Dr Lecky);
- A multi-agency approach (Cathy Elliott);
- Laws and powers to help prevent knife crime (Phil
Hull);
- A recognition that a young person carrying a
knife is more likely to be injured, linking with safeguarding
children and installing self-esteem through leadership programmes
(Kate MacDonald);
- Early intervention and mandatory prison sentences
for repeat offenders (Mark Cooper);
- Sustainable funding for programmes (Dennis Lewis);
- More official credibility given to restorative
approaches (PC Bob Bowman);
- An acceptance that the factors underpinning knife
crime are very complicated and the response must therefore be
multi-faceted (ACC David Evans).
| 
