Panelists for this session were:

• Chief Superintendent Irene Curtis, President, Police Superintendent’s Association (chair)
• Rebekah Sutcliffe, Assistant Chief Constable, Greater Manchester Police
• Stephen Bediako, Founder & Director, The Social Innovation Partnership; Co-Director, Project Oracle
• Mike Barton, Chief Constable, Durham Constabulary
• Tom Sackville, Interim Director, Young People and Families, Catch 22

I found myself, along with a like-minded group of individuals, pondering the power of early intervention. Unsurprisingly (since I was in attendance at the first national conference of the Early Intervention Foundation) there is an ethos of positivity and excitement at what earlier intervention can achieve, but there is also an acceptance of the challenges. After the morning coffee break, I sat in a seminar on the impact of gang culture, youth violence and organised crime on our most vulnerable young people and their families, where, along with contemplating the current demand for “late intervention” and the economic climate, I waited with eager anticipation to find out if early intervention could be the answer to preventing gang and youth violence.

Chair Irene Curtis, well qualified as the President of the Police Superintendent’s Association, inflamed our enthusiasm by declaring herself a staunch supporter of the Early Intervention Foundation, “passionate and desperate to get the police more engaged across England and Wales”.

A good starting point but not enough, according to Vicky Charles. Vicky is currently the Great Manchester lead for serious and organised crime heading up the ‘Prevent’ strategy, with a wealth of experience in the field, and is completely sold on the effectiveness of early intervention – but is quick to impart her frustration with the system. In her ideal world, Vicky would see a robust approach to commissioning of early intervention services embedded in mainstream funding, but we’re still a long way off. There was almost a challenge for those in attendance to better understand the roots into organised crime, use the evaluation of the life stories of those involved in organised crime, and identify tangible long-term benefits. She referenced area-based interventions in America that were addressing all aspects of the issue in a whole-system approach.

It was a tall order and lucky really that the next speaker, Stephen Bediako, founder and CEO of the Social Innovation Partnership seemed to rise to the challenge. Speaking directly – sitting in between a chief constable and president of the Police Superintendent Association – Stephen suggested that appealing to mercy and altruism won’t work. In order to change the system, he directed us to think about the money: “move the custody budget (and expense) to the Youth Offending Service to incentivise the work in early intervention and crime prevention”. Somewhat controversially, Stephen referred to gang and youth violence as a stock and flow problem that we would be “borderline absurd” to think we can eradicate.

Tom Sackville, Interim Director for Catch 22, agreed with Stephen’s stock and flow analogy. He concurred that we are good at knowing what we know – the stock, those that are committing crime – but we are not really good at knowing the “flow”, those who will be criminals of the future. The practitioner in Tom reiterated all early intervention is built on the foundation of positive relationships that help people make changes using a whole-family approach in a range of settings with pathways to real ways out of organised crime, emphasising the importance of work. The issue is, of course, identifying the flow which provided another reminder of the need to share information.

So… the challenges are clear, and there is a genuine feeling in the room that they are not insurmountable, but in some ways what we have heard is what we expect until Chief Constable Mike Barton takes the floor (literally abandoning the microphone) and standing to address us with an honest approach that demanded respect. Describing himself as a bit of an ‘outlier’ he told his story of how he created a force outstanding in investigating crime and antisocial behaviour. He started by reminding us all that if we ask people to play their part, then we have to ask them to do the right things.

A whole-system review is never going to work unless we are brave enough to take big steps to change practice, and sometimes this will mean admitting we were wrong. Mike Barton admitted to us he was wrong: he told us of his experience as a ‘good cop’ attending domestic abuse incidents, locking up the perpetrator and getting the victim on-side. He never once went upstairs to check on the children. Much later, when watching video footage from a body-worn camera which had captured a cowering 14-year-old during attendance at a domestic incident, he recognised he had been wrong. Now he has a police force who all wear body-worn cameras and 100% of children present at domestic abuse incidents are spoken to by an officer. It was inspirational to consider what can be gained by learning from new research, evidence and practice, and admitting when we’re wrong.

All in all, this was a fantastic and thought-provoking seminar covering the possibilities of early intervention beyond the scope of gang and youth violence. Good choice EIF – can’t wait for the next ones.