Waltham Forest’s Community Safety Partnership and the Safeguard Children Board has published a series of recommendations amid rising knife crime in the borough, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter

A series of anti-violence recommendations have been published after two Waltham Forest boys were stabbed to death in 2023.

A total of 11 teenagers – mostly black-British – were victims of knife violence between March and July that year, which resulted in three more being convicted of murder.

Their ages ranged from 14 to 17 years, while the three killers were all aged 16. Of the 14 involved, just one was a girl.

Waltham Forest’s Community Safety Partnership and the Safeguard Children Board published a thematic review of the violent episodes this month, almost three years on.

The review found that eleven had experienced disruptions to their education – with seven having been permanently suspended – and ten had previous experience with the criminal justice system.

Three had been diagnosed with learning disabilities, including autism and attention deficit disorder, and five were undiagnosed but suspected.

There were “professional concerns for almost all of the children and families and for most, these had been emerging for at least a year,” the report said.

For those younger than 18, serious violence “tends to be strongly associated with the school day”, the report adds.

Just shy of 70% of offences involving a victim under 18 take place on a school day, and almost one-third occur between 3pm and 5pm.

The report found that young black men face the highest rate of victimisation for knife injury offences, at double the rate of any other ethnic group. In October 2024, this was around three times higher than their white peers.

The lengthy review concluded with six recommendations. They included working with schools to make them safer and more supportive, repairing trust between young people and the police, and bolstering mental health support – specifically for young black men.

A new community cohesion team will focus on tackling hate crimes in schools, while the schools themselves will expand access to on-site counsellors and after-school clubs.

On top of introducing citizens’ assemblies, with input from young people, there are plans to improve safeguarding following stop-and-searches by the police, which the partnerships says can lead to trauma.

The council’s youth services team is also working with the employment service, hosting workshops and promoting opportunities in creative, construction and other industries. They include apprenticeships, work experience, and mentoring.

Other recommendations include widening access to youth services and “positive opportunities” therein, and enhancing the community safety partnership by improving its ability to monitor social media and the early identification of special educational needs in children from ethnic minorities.

Violence is an “enduring challenge” in Waltham Forest, the report claims.

There were 2,047 serious violence offences recorded between October 2023 and September 2024 – an average rate of six serious violent offences every day. More than a third involved a victim younger than 25.

“Although we have a relatively low rate of recorded serious violence offences overall, a notable exception, particularly for the most serious violence, is the increase in knife injury victims aged under 25,” the report says.

There are “seasonal and temporal peaks” in serious violence overall.

In the last three years, serious violence has typically been higher in the early summer months of May through July.

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