Keeping kids safe: improving safeguarding responses to gang violence and criminal exploitation

This report estimates there are 27,000 children in England who identify as a gang member, only a fraction of whom are known to children’s services. It recommends that the government needs to make child criminal exploitation a national priority, and lay out clear expectations about the role of all organisations working with children – including the police, schools, children’s services and NHS bodies. There also needs to be more support from the NHS, including better mental health support for children at risk of gang membership and exclusion.