The Characteristics of Gang-Associated Children and Young People: Technical Report

By Tom Clarke

This analysis aims to provide information on the scale of gang associated children and young people (CYP) identified by statutory services and their characteristics, with a particular focus on overlaps with other vulnerable groups. To do this we present analysis of two groups of CYP:  CYP assessed by children’s services during the year to March 2018. This is taken from the Children in Need Census (CIN) collected by the Department for Education and is matched where possible to the National Pupil Database (NPD).  CYP receiving an Asset Plus assessment in the 12 months to September 2018. This is a bespoke collection from Youth Offending Teams (YOT) in England and received responses from 130 out of 137 areas. Both of these data sources have extensive information on the characteristics of the CYP assessed, including practitioner assessed markers of whether a child is gang associated or not. This allows us to examine the scale of children marked as being gang associated in both data sources and to examine differences between these gang associated CYP and other CYP assessed on other characteristics recorded in the datasets.

London: Children’s Commissioner for England, 2019, 39p.