NEWS: Younger kids targeted by drug gangs

As reported by CYP Now, former Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield warns that post-pandemic, drug gangs are increasingly exploiting younger, more vulnerable children

“It’s almost as if a generation of 15- and 16-year-olds was skipped by those who were looking to recruit and instead, they went to 13- and 14-year-olds, presumably, because they were more malleable.

“They could threaten and frighten them more and they’re less likely to be stopped by police,” Longfield, who founded think tank the Centre for Young Lives, told CYP Now.

She added that children are being targeted by gangs attempting to coerce them into involvement in crime both online and in the community.

An increase in the numbers of children who have not returned to school following the pandemic puts young people at greater risk of exploitation, Longfield explained.

“It’s this dreadful, toxic mix of kids who are falling outside of the school system and the school system that can’t get them back in just doesn’t have the capacity to do that.

“Those kids who don’t have a support structure around them or trusted adults around them are more vulnerable because the one thing that that those people looking to exploit kids want is for kids to be isolated,” she said.

Latest figures from the Department for Education show that in the year to 31 March 2023, 21.2% of pupils were persistently absent from school.

Meanwhile, most recent statistics from the Youth Justice Board found that the number of 10- to 14-year-olds entering the youth justice system for the first time increased by seven per cent in the year to March 2023 compared with the previous year.

Meanwhile, there had been a one per cent drop in 15- to 17-year-olds entering the youth justice system for the first time.

Longfield, who spoke to CYP Now ahead of the launch of her new book Young Lives, Big Ambitions, said that the period between school years five and nine are crucial for providing support for children left most vulnerable following the pandemic.

“Those are pivotal years in terms of their educational achievement, but also, in terms of their social development. There will be some kids who need that extra element of nurture and support around that period of time,” she said.