Every child caught carrying a knife in England and Wales will be given a mandatory targeted plan to stop them reoffending and protect the public.
Every child caught carrying a knife in England and Wales will be given a mandatory targeted plan to stop them reoffending
£320 million invested into Youth Justice Services to turn young people away from a life of crime
Delivers on Government's commitment to halve knife crime within a decade and make streets safer as part of its Plan for Change
Children will be given earlier, more targeted support to steer them away from crime under plans to drive down knife carrying among young people, the Deputy Prime Minister has announced today.
The action, led jointly by the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office, reflects the Government's determination to halve knife crime in a decade and confront youth violence with a strong, coordinated national response.
Every child in England and Wales caught carrying a knife will be given a mandatory specialised plans to stop them reoffending, part of the Government's commitment to halve knife crime within a decade.
Meeting a manifesto pledge, police will refer every child knife possession case to Youth Justice Services - locally-led teams spanning health, education and community services tasked with mandating targeted action to help each child.
These specialised plans will address the root causes of a child's offending, including potential exploitation by criminal gangs and childhood trauma, and could be forced to attend mentoring to stay in education or social skills training to boost employability. This will give children the foundations they need to turn their backs on crime and keep our streets safe.
These plans will be mandatory, with no child able to avoid the getting the support they need. Youth Justice services will intensively monitor the child's progress and if they do not engage with their plan or are judged to still be of risk to the public, the police will immediately be informed and further action taken. Failure to engage will have serious consequences, such as possible criminal charges and time behind bars. The plans will be monitored and implemented, as will the young person's progress, reassuring the public that they are going to have an impact.
Deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy said:
Every life lost to knife crime is an unmitigated tragedy. With early targeted action, we can put children on the right path to a positive future and stop them falling into a toxic cycle of reoffending.
Our reforms will give local services the security they need to help more young people and make our streets safer for everyone.
The plans announced today will be backed up with a first of its kind three-year wider funding package for Youth Justice Services, worth over £320 million, giving them more certainty to invest in the future, and roll out longer-term programmes to help even more young people.
Evidence demonstrates that prevention schemes can have a real difference in helping young people turn their lives away from crime, with more than 90% of children who engaged with the government's Turnaround programme avoiding future police cautions or court.
To continue this work, the government has also confirmed that the Turnaround programme will have guaranteed multi-year funding, including over £15 million this year. This will give the programme the stability to support even more children and stop them ever committing crime.
The Government will also invest a further £5 million into regional partnerships to speed up community alternatives to custodial remand. Currently, around 40 per cent of children in custody are on remand, with more than 60 per cent later not receiving a custodial sentence - unnecessarily impacting their lives and futures.
The Home Office is also working closely with policing leaders to ensure that these interventions are supported by strong enforcement and rapid action when knives are found on our streets, strengthening the wider national effort to reduce youth violence.
Policing Minister, Sarah Jones said:
Carrying a knife will now trigger an immediate, mandatory intervention - no excuses.
This guidance makes sure every child is referred straight to a Youth Justice Services team and is given the support needed to change course.
As Policing Minister, I am working with forces across England and Wales to ensure officers have the full backing of the Home Office to crack down on knife possession, act quickly when knives are found, and prevent violence before it happens.
We're acting fast to stop violence before it starts and keep our streets safe.
Pooja Kanda, knife crime campaigner and mother of victim Ronan Kanda said:
This is a great initiative from the government and is exactly what we need: a proper plan. We must not let youths who are caught with a knife be left isolated, with no support and crying out for help. I believe this plan would have stopped my son's attacker from re-offending and eventually taking my son's life. We must guide young people away from using knives. I am fully behind this initiative, and the government's overall mission to halve knife crime in a decade.
Patrick Green, CEO of The Ben Kinsella Trust said:
It is vital that responses to serious youth violence are adequately resourced and recognise the realities that many vulnerable children and young people face. We welcome the focus on earlier, coordinated support for children and young people found carrying knives, and the commitment to timely, tailored interventions that prioritise safeguarding and rehabilitation over further criminalisation.
Too often, children and young people are drawn into serious violence by entrenched vulnerabilities and systemic pressures such as fear, trauma, and criminal exploitation. A sustained focus on early intervention and prevention is essential and represents an important step towards tackling the root causes of knife crime.
Today's announcement is the latest step in the Government's pledge to halve knife crime in the next decade, building on our wider work including taking thousands of knives off our streets and our County Lines Programme which saw record numbers of gang leaders charged last year. This complements broader Home Office‑led efforts to tackle the online sale of knives and coordinate national enforcement through the knife crime coordination centre.
It also marks the first stage of the most significant overhaul of youth justice in a generation, making sure it is modern and better responds to children's needs. This work comes alongside the first steps of fundamental reforms to the Youth Justice Board, following a government-wide efficiency review, which will see it take a renewed focus on supporting frontline workers.
