The Mayor’s decision to extend funding for the work of the charities RedThread and Oasis Youth, which support young victims of knife crime, has been warmly welcomed by Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, who personally urged the Mayor to support these organisations last December. The need to support such organisations was a key recommendation in Caroline’s report on tackling knife crime in London, which was published last November.
In a letter sent to Caroline this week the Mayor has stated that MOPAC (Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime) has now secured funding to maintain the vital services provided by RedThread and their youth workers in London’s four Major Trauma Centres for the next three years. Another positive development is that MOPAC will also be funding Oasis Youth enabling them to extend their services and place youth workers in Middlesex Hospital until the end of 2016/17.
These youth workers provide vital support for young victims of knife crime and other violent offences and help to end the tragic cycle of violence we see too often on our streets.
The Mayor also accepted another long standing recommendation by Caroline Pidgeon to ensure that MOPAC adopt the ‘Cardiff Model’ across all A&E’s in London. The ‘Cardiff Model’ is an approach to sharing and using anonymised data on violent offences obtained through A&E admissions to inform and develop crime reduction policies by the police and local authorities. In areas where the Cardiff Model has been implemented there has been a 42% reduction in A&E admissions due to violent crime.
Welcoming the Mayor’s announcement Caroline Pidgeon said:
“This announcement is incredibly welcome.
“Sensible and much needed policies to help young victims of knife crime are now being given the support they so desperately needed.
“Finally every A&E department across London will share anonymised data to help reduce violent crime across the capital.”
Read more at Get West London.