This document summarizes a session covering policies related to gangs. It recaps the previous session discussing gang responses in Manchester and Birmingham. It identifies key national policies and discusses locating one's organization within the national and local context. Participants are asked to write the names of organizations working on gang issues on flipcharts. They will then choose a policy to analyze and identify its key components to present. The document outlines the relevant government departments and policies. It discusses the emphasis on partnership and multi-agency working in key documents and asks participants about their experiences with this approach regarding gang-related work.

1. Policies Unit – session 4
Covering Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3,
4, and Assessment Criteria 1.3, 2.1,
2.2, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2

2. Recap from Session 3
• We…
• -discussed the ‘picture’ in Manchester and
Birmingham and the comparative responses in
the 2 cities
• -Identified key national policies (EGYV, TKAP,
CAGGK)
• - began to identify where your
organisation/practice is located within the
national/local picture
• - began to discuss the effectiveness of this in the
context of inter-agency/multi-agency working

3. • Walk around the room and using ‘post its’
write the names of organisations/agencies
that you know work with the ‘gangs’ agenda,
on each of the flip charts under the headings:
• 1. ‘Government’, 2. ‘Local Authority’,
• 3. ‘National Third/Voluntary Sector’, 4. ‘Local
Third/Voluntary Sector’

4. In small groups choose a policy
and identify/note the key
components of it to feed back to
the rest of the group

5. At the Level of ‘Government’: Two Key
Departments
Home Office Dept of Work and
(Previously Pensions
under Jacqui Smith; (currently under
currently – Theresa May Iain Duncan Smith-
-The Home Secretary) The Secretary
of State for Work
and Pensions)

6. The Dept of Work and Pensions…
…is also responsible for Social
Justice
(and therefore the implementation of the
Welfare Reform Act)

7. The Home Office Includes:
• -The UK Border Agency (7 foreign national offenders
removed – “most dangerous gang members” (EGYV,
Nov 2012)
• - Violent and Youth Crime Unit (In Scotland – The
National Violence Reduction Unit)
• - Serious Organised Crime Agency
• - Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs
• - The Police (including The Independent Complaints
Commission; National Policing Improvement Agency;
The Police Advisory Board; The Police Negotiating
Board)
• - Office of Surveillance Commissioners
• - The Disclosure and Barring Service
• - The Equality and Human Rights Commission

8. Other Relevant Organisations (with a
national profile):
• -Centre for Social Justice
• - Runnymede Trust
• - The Joseph Rowntree Foundation
• - The Howard League for Penal Reform
And Some University Departments:
-Cambridge University Dept of Criminology
-Liverpool John Moores University, Centre for Public
Health
-University of Bedfordshire, Dept of Social Legal
Studies

9. • So, where are you and your
organisation in all of this?

10. Are you a ‘Partner’?
• Because…
‘partnership’, ‘multi-agency’, ‘inter-
professional’, ‘inter-agency’, ‘joined-up
working’, work ‘co-operatively’- appears
throughout Every Child Matters: Change
for Children (DfES, 2003)

11. The Children Act (DfES, 2004:5) which forms the basis
of the reform of children and young people’s services in
England wants to establish:
• “…a duty on Local authorities to make
arrangements to promote co-operation between
agencies and other appropriate bodies (such as
voluntary and community organisations) in order
to improve children’s well-being (where well-
being is defined by reference to the five
outcomes), and a duty on key partners to take
part in co-operation arrangements.“
• (Chauhan, V. (2007) ‘Partnership Working in the Voluntary and Community Sector’,
in Harrison, R., Benjamin, C., Curran, S., and Hunter, R., (eds) ‘Leading Work with
Young People’, London, Los Angeles: OUP/Sage p. 234)

12. • So, what is your experience of
partnership’ working in the
context of work with gangs/gang
related environments?