Youth workers could be sent to regional hospitals after hike in gang violence linked to 'county lines' drug wars

Youth workers could be deployed to regional hospitals that have seen a rise in the number of young men injured by violence linked to “county lines” drug wars.

Pioneering charity Redthread says young people — many from London — are increasingly being admitted to these hospitals after being injured while dealing drugs from the capital.

The charity already helps youngsters with serious assault injuries, often from knives and guns, at London’s four major trauma centres. Youth workers seek to engage with the victims at a “teachable moment” in an effort to help them turn their lives around.

Redthread now hopes to raise funds to expand to towns affected by county lines drug-dealing.

Dozens of London gangs run operations moving Class A drugs from the capital into county and coastal towns to sell, and a National Crime Agency report found numerous cases of serious violence related to drug turf wars.

Redthread said it had been approached by more than one hospital outside London to work with victims of gang violence.

Charity chief executive John Poyton said: “There are young people getting involved in county line drugs violence who are attending hospitals with injuries. They are getting injured as a result of drugs infighting.”

Last year, the charity dealt with up to 200 people a month being treated at London’s major trauma centres for serious assault injuries. The project is backed by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, although the current £1.2 million grant is due to run out in March. Mayor Sadiq Khan recently said that he would fund an extension of the scheme to other A&E units in London, but no decision has been taken on who should run the programme.

The charity supported 990 young people who had suffered serious violence between 2015 and 2017. Two thirds of victims had been stabbed.

Research found a reduction in violence associated with nearly half of the young people helped by the charity six months after they left hospital. Mr Poyton said: “There is a need to look at a health-based approach to knife crime, not just a criminal justice one. The Mayor has been quite visionary in funding a health-based approach and this needs to be expanded.

“Whether or not Redthread does this, I think this approach needs to be developed and rolled out across the NHS. “

Last month, Mahad Yusuf, 20, and Fesal Mahamud, 19, pleaded guilty to trafficking a 19-year-old woman who was forced to take drugs from London to Swansea. It was the first such case to use the Modern Slavery Act.