The Town Hall is failing to adequately protect young people from gang violence because of a poor working relationship with police, a damning new report has found.

Work by Islington Council’s youth offending service on preventing young criminals committing new crimes also remains “poor”, said Paul Wilson, Chief Inspector of Probation, in his report published last week.

Mr Wilson noted improvements since the last inspection 18 months ago, but said: “The Partnership Board [a body which includes police, probation staff, council officers and health workers] has not yet consistently ensured that services to children and young people are effective.”

He acknowledged that the work in Islington was “not without its challenges, including significant issues with gangs and serious youth violence”.

Islington was subject to a second inspection since 2014, when it was revealed that more than half of young criminals in the borough re-offend, compared to 37 per cent nationally.

Mr Wilson said work on reducing re-offending was inadequate because of “miscommunication” between police and council officers, “confusion of efforts” and “duplication of some work”.

The service’s weakest area of practice, he added, was protecting youngsters from violence. Staff were able to identify issues that made children vulnerable, but there was a lack of understanding of how to protect gang members themselves, their family members and girls who might be sexually exploited by gangs.

The inspector said that aspects of governance and the effectiveness of interventions to reduce re-offending were “unsatisfactory”.

He added: “Although the youth crime strategy sets out how the Partnership Board intends to tackle these problems, we found that the relationship between the local authority and the police had resulted in a lack of focus on public protection and the management of the serious risks some children and young people posed to others.”

The report comes days after the council pledged to spend an extra £500,000 on “targeted support” for young people most at risk of turning to gang crime, after three Islington teenagers were killed in stabbings last year.

The council has protected its youth budget from cuts since 2010, and has pledged to continue to do so over the next four years.

Children and young people chief Councillor Joe Caluori said: “We agree with the main inspection findings and are taking action. Police officers are now co-located with our youth offending service and working more closely alongside them. We have also carried out more training for frontline staff, and this will continue.

“We’re also working with police to create a new integrated gangs team, which will see officers working together to target those most at risk of getting involved in gangs, as well as helping other family members and friends to stay away from gangs.”

Islington borough commander Catherine Roper added: “We welcome the report feedback to identify where our service can be further improved, and have already progressed some of the recommendations. We agree that early intervention is essential to support vulnerable young people and their families.”

• Keywords
  GANGS (CRIMINAL), YOUNG PEOPLE