A discreet building in Liverpool is a "safe space" for young people amid concerns about knife crime and cuts to youth services.
Local authority spending on youth services has fallen by nearly £1bn in England and Wales since 2010, representing a real term cut of 70%, according to a 2020 YMCA report. Last year, the Local Government Association (LGA) said more than 4,500 youth worker jobs have been cut and 750 youth centres closed in the same time frame.
The areas with the largest cuts saw the biggest rise in knife crime, according to a parliamentary report. Kids as young as seven are carrying knives in Liverpool, the BBC reported earlier this year. The "voluntary relationship" young people enter into with youth workers, one of the few adults they have a relationship with outside school or family, makes them well placed to intervene.
