Statistics briefing
Published -
January 28, 2025 This is an update to the statistics published in our Beyond the Headlines report. This update includes latest data on core indicators for knife crime, policing, health, children’s services and the youth sector in England and Wales.
Summary
In July 2024, we launched a series of 11 indicators that we’ll use to track changes in violence affecting children and in the sectors that are key to supporting children at risk of violence. For more information, see our core indicators and report. Since our last update, new annual data for 2023/24 has been published on five of these indicators: knife crime, policing, health, children’s services and the youth sector. Taken together, the latest data shows a mixed picture.
The indicators for knife crime, health and the youth sector deteriorated in the past year:
- More children were admitted to hospital for knife assault.
- More children were referred to mental health services.
- The small increases in spending on young people’s services from the last two years have stalled.
But there have been improvements in policing and children’s services:
- More crimes were successfully investigated by the police.
- Fewer children were being looked after by local authority children’s services as of 31st March.
View our core indicator dashboard below for detailed statistics.
Core Indicators Dashboard
For more details, see the full briefing or our core indicators dashboard.
Children affected by violence
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Homicides
16–24-year-old homicide victims (England and Wales)
- Latest value
- 99
- Latest Year
- March 2023
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2021/22)-19%pre-covid (2019/20)-30%10 years before (2012/13)14% -
Knife crime
Hospital admissions for knife assault (0-17-year-olds)
- Latest value
- 509
- Latest Year
- March 2024
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)9%pre-covid (2019/20)-8%10 years before (2013/14)58% -
Justice system involvement
Proven violent offences committed by children
- Latest value
- 14,298
- Latest Year
- March 2023
Indicator performanceimprovingchange compared toprevious year (2021/22)-2%pre-covid (2019/20)-31%10 years before (2012/13)-46% -
Disproportionality
Proportion of children in custody who are Black
- Latest value
- 26%
- Latest Year
- March 2023
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2021/22)-2%pre-covid (2019/20)-2.2%10 years before (2012/13)4%
Sectors & Society
-
Policing
Recorded crimes that were successfully investigated crimes
- Latest value
- 10%
- Latest Year
- March 2024
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)0.8%pre-covid (2019/20)-0.8%10 years before (2013/14)-15.1% -
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2020/21)0.9%pre-covid (2019/20)-2.0%10 years before (2012/13)-8.9%
-
Indicator performancenachange compared toprevious year (2021/22)N/Apre-covid (2019/20)N/A10 years before (2012/13)N/A
-
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2021/22)-1.3%pre-covid (2019/20)10%10 years before (2012/13)7.6%
-
Indicator performanceworseningchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)3%pre-covid (2019/20)49%10 years before (2016/17*)105%
-
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)-0.2%pre-covid (2019/20)4.5%10 years before (2013/14)21.6%
-
Youth sector
Local authority expenditure for youth services
- Latest value
- £474m
- Latest Year
- March 2024
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)-0.3%pre-covid (2019/20)7%10 years before (2013/14)-49.5% -
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2021/22)2.2%pre-covid (2019/20)0.2%10 years before (2012/13)-3.8%