'Poverty of hope' has led to soaring knife crime says CEO of Britain's leading children's charity

Megan White8 March 2019
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A “poverty of hope” has led to the rise in knife crime, according to the CEO of Britain’s leading children’s charity.

Barnardo's boss Javed Khan told BBC Question Time that although funding more police officers could help tackle the crisis, it would be a “mistake to think… it would solve the problem.”

Speaking in Dudley on Thursday, Mr Khan said many young people “carry knives to feel safe” and that investing in communities could prevent more deaths.

He spoke on the same night hundreds marched through Romford to remember murdered teenager Jodie Chesney and protest against London’s recent spate of killings.

The scene in Lanfrey Place on Thursday
NIGEL HOWARD

A teenager who was stabbed in West Kensington on Thursday became the 17th person killed by a knife in London alone in 2019.

Mr Khan said: “We feel safer when we see more police officers, but it would be a mistake to think more bobbies on the beat would solve the problem.

“The root causes actually lie elsewhere. When I talk to these young kids who are on the verge of violent crime or in and out of gangs, what they talk to me about is the lives that they are living.

“They say they carry knives to stay safe and I say to them you don’t need a knife to stay safe, but they say “that’s easy for you to say, live in the housing estate that I live in, walk from my housing estate to my school and tell me whether you feel safe or not.”

“There’s a whole range of answers, but policing alone isn’t. Policing is important, but I think we need to invest in the communities where these young people are living.

Police recover what appears to be a knife after searching a drain in West Kensington
Steve Parsons/PA

“We need to fund police officers but we need to fund youth and community workers as well, we need to fund community centres, we need to create new spaces where young people feel safe.

“We need to give them hope, because I believe that poverty is an issue, but what I’m seeing is a poverty of hope, where young people do not see a reason to change their behaviours – that’s where we’ve got to invest.

“Poverty, yes – put more money in, it’s welcome, put more bobbies on the beat – but don’t forget about investing in the communities themselves.

“Employ people from those communities, because they are likely to know what the answers are and they will be more trusted than anybody else will.”

Mr Khan appeared alongside former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, Labour's Margaret Beckett, Times columnist Iain Martin and journalist Owen Jones.

Jodie Chesney was attacked and stabbed in a park in Harold's Hill last Friday night

The programme was aired as one of Britain’s most senior police officers called on judges to ensure “harsh” sentences are given to knife carriers.

Andy Cooke, Merseyside Police chief constable, said judges must get tough on those who face court for carrying blades as he urged that more must be done to end the bloodbath.

A secondary school teacher who spoke on the BBC show said she works in a school between where two young men were murdered in Birmingham last month.

Three teenagers died in the city in just 12 days in February.

She said teachers can “only do so much” because young people’s services have all had their funding slashed.

Jodie Chesney: march against knife killings - in pictures

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The teacher added: “We like to think that we can reassure our pupils but all their services have been cut.

“We’re telling them not to go to parks but where can they go? Everything has been withdrawn.

“When I first started teaching in 2007, we had youth support people, we had youth centres, we had outreach projects, and we had people coming in and out of schools all the time.

“We do not have any funding for those sorts of projects, or very little, and we’re making the best of what we can do.”

Journalist Owen Jones added: “The way we run society has snatched away security and optimism from young people.”

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