Festus Akinbusoye was Bedfordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner between 2021 and 2024
I once asked a Chief Constable to provide me with data on the number of domestic abuse cases attended by his officers in which a child was present or was of concern to the police officers. I was astonished at the result.
Seventy-five per cent was the year-to-date figure. This was in 2023 in one of the smallest police forces in the country. My reason for inquiring about this as the then Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) was due to the growing concerns I had about serious youth offending, accounts I heard from school leaders during the over 100 schools I visited to give talks at assemblies, and my numerous conversations with those involved in working with young people in local authorities.
I also had a hunch during my time mentoring young offenders in prison and as a basketball coach in London many years ago that too many young people were growing up in homes where they were exposed to unacceptable levels of violence, abuse, and neglect by those meant to care for them but were never reported.
In 2023, the Youth Endowment Fund published its latest Children, Violence & Vulnerability report. I quote from the report:
From the “survey of 7,574 teenage children, 16 per cent said they had been a victim of violence in the past 12 months. Among these victims, 68 per cent experienced some form of physical injury as a result – equivalent to 360,000 13 to 17-year-old children in England and Wales. Even more (44%) had said they’d witnessed violence in the past 12 months. Nearly half (47 per cent) saying that they’d either been a victim or witness to violence within the last year.”
The report goes on to identify London as having the highest proportion of young people being a victim of violence, 25 per cent compared to 10 per cent national average.
However, while we hear much from policymakers about the impact of social media on youth offending, there is very little said on the role of the home environment on the behavior of young people, thus leading to a greater likelihood of misaligned social policy interventions.
Why could this noticeable silence be? Could it be that policymakers are worried about being accused of blaming parents? Could political correctness be a factor? Possibly so, but society and family dynamics have changed drastically over the last half-century. So must the way policymakers approach this issue.
For example, as Police and Crime Commissioner, I had funding from the Home Office and Ministry of Justice aimed at supporting victims of crime and preventing crime. Sadly, much of this funding came with strings attached. It was almost impossible to channel this funding towards the home environments where many of the young people being entertained came from. I was, however, able to, in my final year, get some funding in place to provide expert advice to parents who had concerns about a child’s behavior but did not want to call the police or Children’s Services.
One of the most impactful investments I made as PCC was towards a Family Drugs and Alcohol Court (FDAC) led by a highly regarded Judge. The FDAC’s objective was to help parents, mostly women, though I am still in touch with a man who went through the system successfully, to get primary care of their children back from the local authority. This was in effect their ‘last chance saloon’. I sat in as an observer at the Court hearings. Every single case that I observed was heartbreaking because of the chaos that surrounded these parents and by extension, their children.
Quite a few could not make it through the 18-24 months of intensive support, counseling, random drug tests, parenting, and accountability sessions with the Judge. Their children were permanently removed from their care. Fortunately, some succeeded. I put some of them. They’re now in employment, enjoying a new lease of life as a family, and are far less a burden on the State had they been left alone.
The facts are that while home settings come in different shapes and sizes, the home can also make or break a child. Whether it is a rich or poor, straight or gay, two-parent or single-parent family, some things are essential for the healthy development of a young person being raised in that environment.
As a single father who has raised young children over a decade into very successful young adults, endured the teenage years with some remnant of sanity, near expulsion from school of a child, and all the emotional, physical, and financial difficulties that come with this; I know it is not easy. But it is doable with the right support, personal effort, and a bit of luck. Raising children is a skill that must be learned and no child is born with an instruction manual.
All the state interventions in the world, debates about safeguarding young people, youth clubs, and so on will not make a serious enough impact if we keep ignoring the home environments our young people are growing up in.
If we want safer streets and a prosperous society, we must first have safer, healthier homes. It is time for policymakers to be less backward in coming forward on this issue. The future is literally at stake.
Festus Akinbusoye was Bedfordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner between 2021 and 2024
I once asked a Chief Constable to provide me with data on the number of domestic abuse cases attended by his officers in which a child was present or was of concern to the police officers. I was astonished at the result.
Seventy-five per cent was the year-to-date figure. This was in 2023 in one of the smallest police forces in the country. My reason for inquiring about this as the then Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) was due to the growing concerns I had about serious youth offending, accounts I heard from school leaders during the over 100 schools I visited to give talks at assemblies, and my numerous conversations with those involved in working with young people in local authorities.
I also had a hunch during my time mentoring young offenders in prison and as a basketball coach in London many years ago that too many young people were growing up in homes where they were exposed to unacceptable levels of violence, abuse, and neglect by those meant to care for them but were never reported.
In 2023, the Youth Endowment Fund published its latest Children, Violence & Vulnerability report. I quote from the report:
From the “survey of 7,574 teenage children, 16 per cent said they had been a victim of violence in the past 12 months. Among these victims, 68 per cent experienced some form of physical injury as a result – equivalent to 360,000 13 to 17-year-old children in England and Wales. Even more (44%) had said they’d witnessed violence in the past 12 months. Nearly half (47 per cent) saying that they’d either been a victim or witness to violence within the last year.”
The report goes on to identify London as having the highest proportion of young people being a victim of violence, 25 per cent compared to 10 per cent national average.
However, while we hear much from policymakers about the impact of social media on youth offending, there is very little said on the role of the home environment on the behavior of young people, thus leading to a greater likelihood of misaligned social policy interventions.
Why could this noticeable silence be? Could it be that policymakers are worried about being accused of blaming parents? Could political correctness be a factor? Possibly so, but society and family dynamics have changed drastically over the last half-century. So must the way policymakers approach this issue.
For example, as Police and Crime Commissioner, I had funding from the Home Office and Ministry of Justice aimed at supporting victims of crime and preventing crime. Sadly, much of this funding came with strings attached. It was almost impossible to channel this funding towards the home environments where many of the young people being entertained came from. I was, however, able to, in my final year, get some funding in place to provide expert advice to parents who had concerns about a child’s behavior but did not want to call the police or Children’s Services.
One of the most impactful investments I made as PCC was towards a Family Drugs and Alcohol Court (FDAC) led by a highly regarded Judge. The FDAC’s objective was to help parents, mostly women, though I am still in touch with a man who went through the system successfully, to get primary care of their children back from the local authority. This was in effect their ‘last chance saloon’. I sat in as an observer at the Court hearings. Every single case that I observed was heartbreaking because of the chaos that surrounded these parents and by extension, their children.
Quite a few could not make it through the 18-24 months of intensive support, counseling, random drug tests, parenting, and accountability sessions with the Judge. Their children were permanently removed from their care. Fortunately, some succeeded. I put some of them. They’re now in employment, enjoying a new lease of life as a family, and are far less a burden on the State had they been left alone.
The facts are that while home settings come in different shapes and sizes, the home can also make or break a child. Whether it is a rich or poor, straight or gay, two-parent or single-parent family, some things are essential for the healthy development of a young person being raised in that environment.
As a single father who has raised young children over a decade into very successful young adults, endured the teenage years with some remnant of sanity, near expulsion from school of a child, and all the emotional, physical, and financial difficulties that come with this; I know it is not easy. But it is doable with the right support, personal effort, and a bit of luck. Raising children is a skill that must be learned and no child is born with an instruction manual.
All the state interventions in the world, debates about safeguarding young people, youth clubs, and so on will not make a serious enough impact if we keep ignoring the home environments our young people are growing up in.
If we want safer streets and a prosperous society, we must first have safer, healthier homes. It is time for policymakers to be less backward in coming forward on this issue. The future is literally at stake.