10 Ways Councils Are Using AI to Transform Public Services
Councils are increasingly adopting AI-based solutions to improve services. LocalGov Assistant editor Izzy Lepone has collected 10 innovative case studies.
Directors of children’s services criticise pepper spray policy
24/04/2025 Council directors working in children’s services have criticized the Government’s decision to allow the use of pepper spray in young offender institutions. |
Labour announces programme to tackle youth crime
10/10/2023 Labour would set up a ‘young futures’ programme to help tackle crises in youth crime and mental health, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has announced. |
Campaigners call for ‘community-led approach’ to youth violence
25/04/2023 Police powers should be reduced and a ‘community-led approach’ to violence among young people adopted instead, according to campaigners. |
Former children’s commissioner calls for ‘Sure Start Plus’
04/11/2022 The Government should establish a Sure Start Plus programme that could be targeted at teenagers who are at risk of exploitation, former commissioner says. |
Work begins on UK’s first ‘secure school’
01/08/2022 Construction has started on the UK’s first ‘secure school’, a custodial facility aimed at providing young offenders with an education. |
Government announces £300m fund to tackle youth crime
20/05/2022 Councils across England and Wales will be able to draw on a £300m fund aimed at cutting youth crime. |
London boroughs consider cannabis decriminalisation
05/01/2022 Three London boroughs could be part of a pilot scheme aimed at diverting young people caught with a small amount of cannabis away from the justice system. |
Young offenders ‘set up to fail’, report warns
08/10/2019 Children and young people released from young offender institutions are getting too little support in the community and are being ‘set up to fail’, a new report shows. |
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Khan announces £1.1m sports funding to tackle crime
01/08/2019 London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced £1.1m funding for sports groups as part of a drive to stop young people getting involved in crime and violence. |
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Councils ‘in the dark’ over youth service funding
15/05/2019 Local authority leaders have warned that councils ‘remain in the dark’ over youth service funding that helps tackle knife crime and county lines drug dealing. |
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Neuroscience and knife crime
24/04/2019 Gifford Sutherland, knife crime expert at The Training Hub, provides some insight into neuroscience, young people and knife crime. |
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Pilot project helps a third of youths quit ‘county lines’
14/02/2019 Specialist support helped nearly a third of young people in a pilot project to quit 'county lines' involvement with drugs, according to a review. |
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Javid announces £200m to tackle youth violence
03/10/2018 Local government leaders have welcomed the announcement of a new fund to tackle violent crime — but renewed calls to reverse cuts in public health budgets. |
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Home secretary ‘doubles’ early intervention youth fund
31/07/2018 Funding to tackle violence among young people is to be doubled as part of the Government's 'public health' approach to combatting crime. |
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Councils urge Whitehall to avert ‘tragedy’ in youth offending facilities
22/09/2017 Councils have called on the Government to protect young offenders as inspectors say conditions in youth offending facilities make future tragedy ‘inevitable’. |
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Report warns homeless young offenders being placed in unsafe housing
07/09/2016 A third of homeless 16 and 17-year-olds working with youth offending teams are being placed in unsafe or unsuitable accommodation by local authorities, inspectors have warned. |
