The Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel were scheduled to meet on 9 July 2025 to discuss youth crime reduction, the latest performance monitoring report, and the panel's work programme for the coming year. The panel was also expected to note the items scheduled for discussion at its September meeting.

Youth Crime Reduction

The panel was scheduled to consider a report on youth crime reduction and the operation of the serious violence duty, with a view to making recommendations to the executive if necessary.

The report was commissioned as part of the panel's 2025-26 work programme and was intended to provide an update on the progress made on youth crime reduction and the operation of the serious violence duty. The commissioned brief for the report included:

• Prevention and early intervention, including multi-agency working and communications
• Service provision and support
• Community and youth engagement, including sports and leisure engagement
• The council's response to the statutory violence duty
• Local needs assessment and trends
• Youth engagement
• Case studies of effective interventions
• Challenges

According to the report, the statutory responsibility for reducing offending and re-offending by children and young people rests with local Youth Offending Teams (YOTs). In Greenwich, these responsibilities are discharged by the Greenwich Youth Justice Service (YJS), a multi-agency team that includes youth justice professionals, social workers, a seconded probation officer, police officers, and education and health specialists. The YJS works with children aged 10 to 17 who have encountered conflict with the law or who are at risk of offending.

The report noted that a common measure of youth crime prevention is the number and rate of first-time entrants to the youth justice system, and that the rate of first-time entrants in Greenwich remains higher than statistical and geographic neighbours. The latest published figures showed that the rate of first-time entrants to the youth justice system was 253 per 10,000, compared to 160 nationally and 192 across London.

The report also included information on community and youth engagement initiatives, such as Young Greenwich, which delivers prevention work around crime and anti-social behaviour. This includes joint sessions delivered in Greenwich Youth Hubs between youth workers and the Metropolitan Police, covering topics such as county lines¹, the new Stop and Search Charter, drug misuse, and violence against women and girls.

The report also provided an overview of the council's response to the statutory Serious Violence Duty, which was introduced in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. The duty requires specified authorities to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence, including identifying the kinds of serious violence that occur in the area, the causes of that violence, and to prepare and implement a strategy for preventing and reducing serious violence.

The report included the council's agreed definition of serious violence:

Any violence and exploitation affecting young people and adults (with a particular focus on those under the age of 25), domestic abuse, and sexual violence. Within the context of these types of violence, it encompasses homicide, grievous bodily harm, actual bodily harm, rape, assault by penetration, sexual assault, personal robbery, threats to kill and violence against property caused during the commission of one of these offences.

The report also summarised the key aspects of the Serious Violence Strategic Needs Assessment, the partnership arrangements that have been agreed locally to lead on delivery of the duty, the areas of activity to prevent and reduce serious violence, and activity to engage with voluntary sector organisations, communities - including young people, as well as businesses.

The report noted that the council has developed a Strategic Needs Assessment, which is an analysis of available data relating to violence, deprivation and health in the borough. This provides a greater understanding of current and emerging serious violence trends, priority locations or other high-risk issues. Key findings of the assessment included:

• There appears to be a correlation between deprivation and the prevalence of serious violence.
• Children who are perpetrators of serious violence have often experienced adverse childhood experiences.
• Young people, particularly those aged under 18, were more likely to be victims of several categories of serious violence.
• Those aged 16–20 are significantly overrepresented among knife crime victims compared to their Greenwich population size.
• Young people, particularly those aged under 18 and 18–24, had a higher representation as suspects across several categories of serious violence.
• 55% of MARAC referrals between 2020 and 2023 involved children.
• Across 2021-2022, 55% of victims of sexual offences were under 25.

The report also provided an overview of a range of interventions in place to prevent and reduce serious youth violence in the borough, delivered across Children's Services and Safer Communities Directorates.

Performance Monitoring Report

The panel was scheduled to consider a report on performance monitoring for Quarter 4 (Q4) of 2024-2025. The report was focused primarily on core Children's Services business rather than the wider priorities within the Children and Young People's Plan (CYPP). The monitor was framed around the following areas of focus:

• Children achieve throughout their education
• Supporting children with special educational needs
• Missing education / at risk of falling out of education, employment and training
• Risk outside the home
• Children at risk, suffering harm or in our care

The report highlighted the challenges with respect to the increasing demand for Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) assessments and the impact that has on timeliness. It noted that the service had seen a 17% increase on requests to assess and a 19% increase in the EHCP cohort.

The report also noted that while the levels of engagement in employment, education or training (EET) within the council's care leaver cohort is broadly in line with comparators, this is an area the council is committed to improving.

With respect to risk outside the home, the report noted that first time entrant figures (FTEs) had spiked, and that violence against the person is the most prevalent primary offence type, accounting for 53% of the 84 FTEs.

Work Programme Schedule

The panel was scheduled to note the 2025/26 work programme items and agree the scope. The draft meeting schedule included the following items:

• 9 July 2025: Youth Crime Reduction (Joint DCS & HSC Report), Q4 Performance Monitor
• 17 September 2025: Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Assessments, CS Complaints, Compliments and Representation – Annual Report, Q1 Performance Monitor
• 12 November 2025: National Children's Social Care Reforms, Keeping children in their family homes
• 7 January 2026: Overview of RBG Corporate Parenting Activity 2024/25, Annual Report on Corporate Parenting 2024/25, Fostering and Adoption – Annual Report 2024/25, Annual Virtual Schools Report, Annual IRO report, Q2 Performance Monitor, Early Years - Sufficiency Report
• 11 March 2026: Update on Children Wellbeing in School Hubs (WISH), Annual Education Standards and Achievement Report, Elective Home Education – Annual Report, Suspensions, Exclusions and FAP – Annual Report, Children Missing Education - Annual Report, Cabinet Member Update Childcare Sufficiency (Early Years Provision), Post-16 Education Pathways – Joint CYP and Inclusive Economy and Culture Panel meeting.

Commissioning of Future Reports

The panel was asked to note the work items that are scheduled to be presented at the meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel taking place on 17th September 2025, and to consider the scope of forthcoming reports and specify any detailed requirements. The reports scheduled for the September meeting were:

• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Assessments
• CS Complaints, Compliments and Representation – Annual Report
• Q1 Performance Monitor