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Claudia Webbe |
Attack on youth worker cuts when 30 gangs are on streets
Met Police adviser warns that a generation is growing up without support
A SENIOR adviser to the Met Police has warned that gangs are flourishing in Islington because of cuts in youth and community services.
Claudia Webbe, a senior adviser to Operation Trident, which tackles gun crime in the capital, said that the borough has just 38 youth workers in an area with an estimated 30 gangs.
Ms Webbe, an Islington resident, blamed the “Thatcherite” policies of Liberal Democrat-controlled Islington Council, which she said had reduced support for young people.
She argued that it was not just professional youth workers who had been cut, but also funding for community organisations, which meant there were fewer volunteers to work with young people.
“As a result we now have a generation of 13 to 15-year-olds who have grown up without support which the professional and voluntary system could have provided,” she added.
“And they are getting younger.”
Ms Webbe spoke out at the town hall following an hour-long debate by the council on gang crime last week in the wake of the stabbing of Martin Dinnegan in June.
Ms Webbe explained that youth workers act independently and work directly with young, vulnerable people on the streets.
She said youth workers had the necessary street credibility to engage with young people. “They can, for example, help where young people see a lack of opportunity in jobs and the fact that they are living on the edge of society,” she added.
“Black youth, for example, are often faced with a prospect of unemployment and can be excluded from school. They are also often the target for searches by police on the streets. But there is only one Afro-Caribbean community organisation left in the borough.
“What this council fails to understand is that it’s not just statutory youth workers who can make a difference. There was also the voluntary sector, which the council has reduced by eradicating its funding.
“There’s a huge plethora of organisations which have been cut, including after-school clubs and Saturday schools. But it was these organisations that provided such valuable support for youth.”
She said that youth clubs no longer worked and that youth workers needed to engage with gangs on the streets in innovative ways.
Lib Dem councillor Ursula Woolley, executive member for young people, agreed that youth workers were important to engage with young people.
However, she maintained that the number of hours they are working on the street had not changed.
She added: “As for the voluntary sector, they have organised a number of not very well attended events. I agree that volunteering can be really powerful but why should the public have to pay if people don’t turn up?
“There have been no cuts to front-line youth services. But, remember, having youth workers on the street will not solve the problem of gang culture on its own. There are so many other factors.
“Street crime is a nationwide issue but I think in Islington at least we can help to defeat it.” |
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