Success Story: On-boarding Catch22 ‘Kent County Lines and Gangs Service’

Through dynamic, intuitive and user-friendly systems, ILLY Systems enables our partners to deliver high-quality support to vulnerable adults and young people across the ILLY Community.

In August 2022 we were excited to welcome Catch 22 Kent County Lines and Gangs Service into the ILLY Community, following the successful rollout of LINKS CarePath across Kent and Medway.

Kent is a large county in South East England, covering urban, rural and coastal areas. It is  home to one of the largest student populations in the UK, and approximately 25% of the population are aged below 21.

Neighbouring South London boroughs, Kent faces similar challenges around County Lines to other areas with close connections to metropolitan hubs.

Between April 2019 – June 2020, ONS data revealed a 38% increase in drug offences across the UK, with 1,203 of these being recorded in Kent during the same period, representing a 33% rise –  the fifth highest increase in the country.

With County Lines activity and the accompanying child criminal exploitation so prominent in Kent, Catch 22 were employed to help provide specialist support for young people who have become victims of this criminal network of abuse and exploitation.

 

With both preventative and protective interventions (for those both engaged in and/or at risk of serious youth violence), the Catch 22 Kent County Lines and Gangs Service provides support to children and young people aged up to 25 that have been exposed to child criminal exploitation (CCE).

By identifying the individual needs of each young person, and working together with their immediate support network and close relatives,  Catch 22 designed a tailored programme of support which helps young people identify and manage risk-taking behaviours and recover from the impact of criminal exploitation.

 

How does Catch-22’s Kent service help?

Catch 22 Kent service adopts a trauma-informed, holistic approach which is delivered by specialist caseworkers who develop interventions that support the needs of each client based on their age, specific risks and experiences.

Individuals receive support on a variety of topics, including (but not limited to) healthy relationships; choices and consequences; understanding relationships; knife crime and the law; sexual health advice; substance misuse and social media.

The Kent County Lines and Gang team provide both short and long-term interventions, working in partnership with other agencies across the county to ensure individual support needs are met.

We recently met with Marc Stevens (Senior Service Manager – Young People, Families and Community Hub), Klare Meyer (Service Manager – Kent County Lines and Gangs Team) and Jack Goldman (Data Compliance Officer – Young People, Families and Community Hub) who kindly contributed their perspectives on the project please see video above.

Would you like to find out more?

It is through collaborative working, and the sharing of data and information, that we can help build an approach that can improve our communities and evolve the way we work with vulnerable clients.  

If you have any questions or would like to find out more, please get in touch with our Client Services Team and we’ll be happy to help:

  +44 (0)20 4566 5727     clientservices@illycorp.com