Lambeth launches new drive to keep young people safe from crime after school

Lambeth Council has teamed up with the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) to help protect the borough’s youngsters from robbery on the way to and from school.

The “Safe Road, Safe Way Home” campaign harnesses youth outreach patrols, additional mobile CCTV and help from police and local businesses to tackle crime in areas identified as robbery hotspots. The Director of the VRU, Lib Peck, joined Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, Cllr Dr Mahamed Hashi on a visit to Bishop Thomas Grant School in Streatham on Monday, where they met members of the council’s Youth Engagement Service, school staff and pupils to discuss the importance of supporting young people to stay safe on the school run.

The campaign was developed to address young people’s concerns about often feeling unsafe on the school run. Safe Road, Safe Way Home aims to raise awareness of Lambeth’s Youth Engagement Service (YES) and the proactive patrols it carries out, to encourage more young people to approach the team and engage with the support they provide.

The two-year programme, funded by the VRU, is part of a £200,000 package of interventions to tackle robbery after school and around busy night-time areas. It aims to build on the signs of progress seen recently, with an 18.6% fall in violence with injury in the 12 months to March 2025.

Cllr Dr. Mahamed Hashi, Lambeth Council’s Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, said: “Our ambition is to make Lambeth one of the safest boroughs in London, where everyone feels safe and secure in all places. This is one of the core ambitions in our Lambeth 2030 borough plan – Our Future, Our Lambeth.

“We know robbery can have a deep emotional impact on young people who experience it, which is why we’re putting more council resources into supporting young people, with additional street patrols by our Youth Engagement Service, as well as mobile CCTV deployments to help catch perpetrators.

“When they engage with young people after school, our youth outreach team take a preventative approach, pointing young people to local opportunities with our fantastic local youth organisations. They also help to identify those at risk of exploitation or victimisation, as part of our Public Health, preventative approach to tackling violence affecting young people.”

Lib Peck, Director of the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit, said: “Evidence shows young people are vulnerable to exploitation and violence in the crucial after-school period.

“That’s why we have invested £3 million in a programme of interventions to tackle robbery in key London boroughs. We’re funding youth work and a series of activities during the after-school period to support and divert young people away from robbery and violence.

“I’m really pleased that our investment is supporting Lambeth Council to fund vital youth work and activities for young people to keep them safe and provide opportunities for them to thrive.”

Safe Road, Safe Way Home was developed through working with the borough’s young people, in partnership with Lambeth-based creative agency Young Creators UK (YCUK). Young people who were consulted said they were pleased that more youth professionals were out on the streets of Lambeth, looking out for their welfare.

Young people can often feel unsafe on the school run, so the campaign aims to raise awareness of YES and the proactive patrols that they carry out, to encourage more young people to approach the team and engage with the support they provide.

The Safe Road, Safe Way Home campaign aims to address this, with youth outreach patrols, coordination with local police, engagement with licensed premises and the deployment of additional mobile CCTV cameras to known hotspots, to detect and deter crime.

The council is deploying mobile CCTV cameras to robbery hot spots, feeding footage back to the council’s recently upgraded CCTV control centre. This is helping the council and police to make Lambeth safer, with high-definition footage provided by a network of more than 600 cameras across the borough. In 2024, more than 19,000 incidents were recorded by the CCTV team, a massive increase from the 6,000 incidents recorded before the upgrades took place.

Lambeth has a team of 24 youth workers who patrol the borough after school and in the evenings to provide proactive support to children and young people. When they engage with young people after school, the YES outreach team takes a preventative approach, pointing young people to local opportunities with our fantastic local youth organisations.

They also help to identify those at risk of exploitation or victimisation, as part of our Public Health, preventative approach to tackling serious youth violence.

Working with YCUK, the council is also launching a special robbery reduction toolkit for schools, helping teachers and other youth professionals to have supportive conversations with young people about their safety.

As well as sharing the simple steps everyone can take to protect ourselves when out and about – like keeping valuables out of sight and sticking to busier routes – the toolkit also supports staff to engage young people around the emotional impact that experiencing or witnessing an incident can have. They are offered guidance on some of the free, confidential support available, including Kooth, Lambeth’s free, safe, online and anonymous place for young people to access support and counselling.