Response to Government announcing mandatory support for young people caught with a knife

In February the Government announced plans for “every child caught carrying a knife in England and Wales to be given a mandatory targeted plan to stop them reoffending and protect the public”. While the policy frames mandatory specialised plans as addressing “root causes”, we believe those root causes must be understood contextually and structurally, not simply at the level of individual behaviour.

Evidence consistently shows that many children carry knives out of fear, coercion, exploitation or perceived need for protection, rather than a simple choice to offend. Sensationalised media reporting and the amplification of violence through online platforms can heighten this fear, creating an environment in which young people perceive risk to be greater and more immediate than official statistics suggest. Public discourse that overstates prevalence or frames knife carrying primarily as wilful criminality risks reinforcing cycles of fear rather than reducing harm.

If mandatory plans are to be effective, they must be embedded within a genuinely whole-system response - linking youth justice, contextual safeguarding, serious youth violence partnerships and serious organised crime strategies. In many local areas, these systems currently operate in parallel rather than in alignment.

We would urge national policymakers to consider not only individualised interventions, but also structural levers: responsible media narratives, regulation of harmful online content, investment in safe spaces and youth provision, and stronger integration between safeguarding and community safety systems.

Without this broader contextual approach, there is a risk that mandatory plans become compliance exercises rather than transformative support, and that they disproportionately impact already over-represented groups without addressing the environments in which harm is generated.