Police filling gaps in the youth service

I have just been talking to a group of senior managers from the youth justice system. They came up with some hair-raising stories.

We were in heated discussions about the value of police community support officers. One example given was in a rural area where the PCSOs are running football clubs and other activities for children. My concern about this is that surely youth workers should be doing it, not police. Youth workers should be trained and skilled in dealing with young people, spotting when they need help because things are tough at home or school, know who to refer abuse or other issues to, and professional at organising and working with teenagers. I am pretty sure that PCSOs get very little training in any of these things.

A senior YOT staffer said that they had had four teenagers in court for public order offences last week. One of the lads had been stopped by PSCOs four times whilst walking down the road, and on the fourth time he told the officer to “F off”. Was arrested for public order.

Are local authorities cutting back on the youth service and using the police to fill the gaps? Is that behind today’s really scary announcement that the police would be asked to identify very young children who could be at risk and to work with them. Preposterous nonsense. Absolutely the wrong thing for the police to be doing, they are not youth workers, their primary concern is not the welfare and wellbeing of the child.