About the report

Beyond the Headlines is our annual look at key trends and data on violence affecting children and young people. We use 11 indicators to track whether things are getting better or worse, and how well the systems that matter most for supporting children and young people are performing.  

This year we’ve added a new indicator focused on violence against young women and girls. The report covers up to 2024/25, the latest full year for which data is available. 

The latest data for 2024/25 suggests a clear shift: serious violence affecting children and young people is falling across England and Wales. Across the YEF’s three core measures of violence, all show an improving picture compared with the previous year. The number of 16–24-year-old homicide victims fell by 41%, hospital admissions for knife assault among 0–17-year-olds fell by 20%, and cautions and convictions of children for violent offences fell by 3%.

Looking in more detail, there were 63 homicide victims aged 16–24 in 2024/25, the lowest figure in over a decade and down from 106 the year before. This reflects a wider decline in homicides across all age groups, with the most marked reduction among younger people. For example, homicides among 13–19-year-olds fell by 48%, compared with a 3% fall among those aged 25 and over. 

A similar pattern is seen in hospital admissions following knife assaults. In 2024/25, 409 children aged 0–17 were admitted to hospital, 100 fewer than the previous year. Over the last decade, numbers peaked at 628 in 2018/19 and, aside from a rise in 2023/24, have declined each year since. Even so, levels remain 33% higher than in 2014/15. 

When we look at violent offences — including violence against the person, robbery and sexual offences — there were 3,970 children cautioned or convicted in 2024/25. This is below the previous year (4,085), below pre-Covid levels (4,427), and below ten years ago (5,200). The overall decline in the latest year was driven by falls in violence against the person (7%), although this was partly offset by a rise in robbery, which increased by 8% year on year. 

Over the past decade, the total number of children in custody has fallen, but this has not affected all groups equally. Between 2014/15 and 2020/21, the number of White children in custody fell by 58%, compared with a 26% fall among Black children. As a result, the proportion of Black children in custody rose to a peak of 29% in 2020/21, despite Black children making up around 6% of 10–17-year-olds in England and Wales. While both the number and proportion of Black children in custody have fallen since then, Black children remained significantly overrepresented in 2024/25, accounting for 22% of those in custody whose ethnicity was known, compared with their population share of around 6%. 

While the latest available data suggests we’re moving in the right direction for reducing children’s involvement in violence, sadly, the same can’t be said for violence against young women and girls. The latest data points to a growing problem, with more children being arrested for sexual offences than at any point in the past decade.

The number of children arrested for sexual offences reached 3,809 in 2024/25 (the latest year). This is up 18% on the previous year (2023/24), up 74% compared with pre-Covid levels (2019/20), and up 12% on ten years ago (2014/15). Boys make up 98% of those arrested. 

Looking more closely at data on different offence types, the number of children cautioned and convicted for indecent image offences (including taking, possessing or distributing illegal images of children) has increased substantially over time. The total number of indecent image offences recorded by the police was more than five times higher in 2024/25 than a decade ago.

Our new indicator on violence against women and girls (VAWG) has been introduced to reflect this distinct form of harm in children’s lives. Given that there’s limited standalone national data on VAWG involving children, including this measure helps bring greater attention to violence against young women and girls and reinforces the need for a stronger focus on prevention. However, it’s important to note that the measure significantly underestimates the true scale of harm. 

To understand how the services that make the biggest difference in protecting children from violence are performing, we track a range of indicators that reflect both progress and the ongoing challenges faced by professionals and services in these sectors. 

Across the sectors, three broad patterns emerge. 

In youth justice, progress in the latest year continues a long-term trend of improvement, as children’s reoffending rates have continued to fall. In 2023/34, 32% of children reoffended — a marginal decrease of one percentage point from the previous year (2022/23), but a substantial reduction compared with a decade ago (2023/24), when the rate was 43%. 

In other sectors, there has been recent improvement, but this sits against a backdrop of longer-term challenges. In policing, the proportion of police-recorded crimes that result in a successful investigation outcome has risen for the third consecutive year, reaching 12%, up one percentage point on the previous year (2023/24). However, this remains less than half the level seen a decade ago. 

In education, keeping children in school helps protect them from involvement in serious violence, which is why we track the proportion of persistently absent children. Rates were relatively stable at around 11% in the years before Covid, before rising sharply to a peak of 23% in 2021/22. They have declined each year since, but remain high at 18% in 2024/25. 

In children’s services, the number of children looked after by the local authority has fallen for a second consecutive year following a long period of increase since 2008. This matters because children in care are disproportionately affected by serious violence. As of 31 March 2025, 81,770 children were being looked after in England — down 2% from the previous year, but still 18% higher than ten years ago. 

But in a smaller number of sectors, worsening pressures in the latest year continue a decade-long decline.  

In health, the number of children referred to NHS-funded mental health, learning disability and autism services continued to rise in 2024/25. Over 1.2 million children were referred, a 7% increase on the previous year and equivalent to 9% of all children in England. This is more than double the number in 2016/17, the earliest comparable year. In Wales, the trend is less consistent, with referrals rising by 19% in 2023/24 but falling by 5% in the latest year (2024/25).

And in youth services, spending on services for young people has fallen substantially over the past decade. After a period of continued real-terms decline, spending began to stabilise and then increase in recent years, but fell again in 2024/25. Total real-terms spending on youth services was £475 million — down from the previous year in both cash and real terms and 44% lower than in 2014/15. 

Violence affecting children and young people is preventable. The improvements across our core measures of violence in the latest data show that progress is possible. Sustaining that progress will require continued focus on children most vulnerable to violence, alongside investment in the approaches and services that evidence shows make the biggest difference. 

To help make this happen, we’ve produced evidence-based guidance for practitioners, commissioners and policymakers. These reports set out practical, actionable recommendations to help prevent violence, strengthen the systems that support children, and make it easier to put what works into practice.