Youth minister admits 'mistakes have been made' on London gangs..
Pressure: Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd was challenged to fund in full the work done by Kids Company
The Government minister responsible for youth policy has admitted that “mistakes were made” when it came to tackling gangs and youth violence.
In a remarkably frank interview, Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society who is charged by the Prime Minister with shoring up government support for young people, said: “We have to be honest and say that what we did in the past with respect to tackling gangs was not good enough. We have got to be candid about the failings of the past and create space for new, innovative ways of thinking.”
Speaking exclusively to the Evening Standard at the Cabinet Office on Whitehall, Mr Hurd said the Standard’s initiative to tackle gangs was “enormously important in keeping government’s feet to the fire”.
“This campaign confronts us as decision makers with the uncomfortable fact that we have a significant number of young people in the capital who live very detached, dangerous, horrible lives and that interventions to support them have not succeeded and we need to do better.
"We saw with the London riots what happens when people feel disconnected from society and how it can manifest in raw explosions. We can’t afford to just get on with our lives and think that we sorted it because the issues are still there, the children are still here, and we can’t be at all complacent or simplistic.”
The University College London report published in the Standard which revealed that too many Londoners were experiencing childhoods where murder and violence were considered “normal” was “deeply shocking” and “a massive wake-up call”, he said.
“As a country, we cannot afford to let children grow up thinking that violence is normal. I can’t put it more strongly than that.”
But what exactly is Mr Hurd, only recently given the youth policy brief, proposing to do about it?
“A large part of the solution is to empower successful voluntary organisations like Kids Company because they already have the trust of young people,” he said. “Kids Company is a magnificent example of an enormously compassionate voluntary organisation, heroically led by Camila Batmanghelidjh, that operates in an incredibly difficult space. Their work is complex, multi-dimensional and enormously serious and they regularly perform miracles with the most shattered lives.”
The Government minister responsible for youth policy has admitted that “mistakes were made” when it came to tackling gangs and youth violence.
In a remarkably frank interview, Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society who is charged by the Prime Minister with shoring up government support for young people, said: “We have to be honest and say that what we did in the past with respect to tackling gangs was not good enough. We have got to be candid about the failings of the past and create space for new, innovative ways of thinking.”
Speaking exclusively to the Evening Standard at the Cabinet Office on Whitehall, Mr Hurd said the Standard’s initiative to tackle gangs was “enormously important in keeping government’s feet to the fire”.
“This campaign confronts us as decision makers with the uncomfortable fact that we have a significant number of young people in the capital who live very detached, dangerous, horrible lives and that interventions to support them have not succeeded and we need to do better.
"We saw with the London riots what happens when people feel disconnected from society and how it can manifest in raw explosions. We can’t afford to just get on with our lives and think that we sorted it because the issues are still there, the children are still here, and we can’t be at all complacent or simplistic.”
The University College London report published in the Standard which revealed that too many Londoners were experiencing childhoods where murder and violence were considered “normal” was “deeply shocking” and “a massive wake-up call”, he said.
“As a country, we cannot afford to let children grow up thinking that violence is normal. I can’t put it more strongly than that.”
But what exactly is Mr Hurd, only recently given the youth policy brief, proposing to do about it?
“A large part of the solution is to empower successful voluntary organisations like Kids Company because they already have the trust of young people,” he said. “Kids Company is a magnificent example of an enormously compassionate voluntary organisation, heroically led by Camila Batmanghelidjh, that operates in an incredibly difficult space. Their work is complex, multi-dimensional and enormously serious and they regularly perform miracles with the most shattered lives.”
