Current status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 23 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it is addressing youth violence, in light of its Youth Violence Summit on 13 January 2025.
The Scottish Government is grateful for the bravery shown by the young people and their families who shared their experiences at the summit. It was extremely important to hear directly from those with lived experience on their views about possible solutions to address violence amongst young people.
We will publish a report of the summit that will highlight the key areas the participants raised.
A commitment has been made to hold a further meeting involving cross-party MSPs to discuss youth violence and the issues raised at the summit.
Over the last two years, we have invested more than £4 million to implement the actions set out in the Violence Prevention Framework, including tackling youth violence. This has included work to extend the support of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, to reach more individuals and communities across Scotland, extending the Medics Against Violence Hospital Navigator Programme in two Children’s Hospitals in Aberdeen and Glasgow and training teachers in schools to provide young people with key messages on violence.
The Scottish Government is also investing up to £20 million through our CashBack for Communities programme phase 6, which is funding 29 partners over 3 years to deliver early intervention and prevention projects targeted at working with and supporting young people at risk of being drawn into antisocial behaviour, offending or reoffending. This programme aims to reach a minimum of 33,976 children and young people between April 2023 and March 2026.