News / knife crime
‘It takes a village to raise a kid and a village to fail a kid’
Teenagers who were killed or seriously injured in a flurry of knife crime incidents in Bristol at the start of 2024 were “failed by the system and by the city”, their families have said.
It comes after the publication of a wide-ranging independent review into what lessons could be learned from their deaths.
Thematic Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review into Serious Youth Violence analyses what went wrong and what could be improved in the way schools, social services, city leaders, police and health chiefs tackle knife crime involving young people.
is needed now More than ever
The review was commissioned following a spate of stabbings in Bristol in just a few weeks which saw the murders of Max Dixon and Mason Rist in Knowle West, Darrian Williams in St Jude’s, and a serious attack in the city centre which left a fourth teenage boy with life-threatening injuries.
The review did not look directly at the causes of the three different incidents, but spoke to the families of the victims, youth workers, teachers, social services, police, health and council chiefs about the issue of knife crime among young people in Bristol
It found there was a lack of joined-up working between the different agencies. The issue of school attendance, exclusion and children “slipping through the net” by not attending any form of education was key to the problems.
And there were too many forums, agencies, organisations, groups and different authorities working in the area yet not enough people working together to support young people.
The review found information about children at risk, gathered by a range of different organisations from youth workers and teachers to police and social services, was not properly shared, so while good work was being done in places to support young people and prevent them from going down the route of gangs and knife crime, poor communication meant it was not joined up.
The review was put together by two independent experts on behalf of the Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership, which comprises Avon & Somerset Police, the NHS and Bristol City Council.
It also highlighted turbulence affecting the leadership of the city, pointing out that there had been five new executive directors for children and education at Bristol City Council in the five years leading up to the murders in 2024.
It said that “strategic instability has been highly impactful within children’s social care”.
Tributes on West Street left to Darrian Williams who died after being attacked in Rawnsley Park on February 14 2024 – photo Ellie Pipe
The family of Darrian Williams, who was stabbed to death in February 2024 by two other teenagers in Rawnsley Park, said they put the responsibility at the door of schools more than anywhere else.
Darrian’s sister, Shanine Wright, said that schools and education is the key issue and that she believes that “school exclusion should be completely illegal, if possible”.
“It’s causing a lot of kids to be vulnerable because they’re not going to schools, they’ve been excluded, they’re going to alternative education.
“At the moment we have an issue with schools in that instead of working to stabilise the child, they are turfing them out of the door.”
Shanine added that a key point in the report is that all ten of the teenage boys involved in the attacks early last year – whether perpetrator or victim – had at some stage been excluded or spent time out of school.
“It’s not just within the educational system. There’s blame within the social services, the police. There’s blame across the whole board, social media. It’s everywhere. It takes a village to raise a kid and a village to fail a kid.”
Darrian Williams was only 16 when he died from a stab wound to the back – photo: family
Mason’s sister, Chloe Rist, said that the review is “a positive step forward”.
She said: “I really appreciate the effort that has gone into making a review to tackle youth violence in Bristol following the loss of my brother Mason.
“Speaking on behalf of my family I want to say that we are thankful for the time and effort that has gone into this review it’s a positive step forward.
“We know that everyone involved in the review is trying to make a bad situation better.
“Working in both private and public sectors within the NHS and now working in children services, I have my own personal experiences of finding services not communicating with each over and would love to see this made easier, so nothing is missed going forwards…
“Losing Mason has left us with a broken heart and we find it hard having the morale to live without him.
“I hope change is made to prevent other families having to go through this never-ending sadness like we are.”
The report describes south Bristol “as relatively isolated within the city” and “as historically being a ‘closed’
community”.
The report adds that “whilst there are not the same named levels of concern about ‘gang’ culture as described for East-Central (Bristol), there is significant professional concern about a street culture that has evolved from the number of children and young people with little to occupy their time; either missing from, or without adequate support in, education”.
Max and Mason were best friends who were murdered in a case of mistaken identity in Knowle West – photo: families
The report criticises many aspects of the way young people are dealt with across all the different agencies, from criticism of the way different councils and authorities work across the different borders of the Bristol area, to the way they share information and work together to support young people.
It also said that too much focus on protecting children by police, councils, schools and social services had been around keeping them safe in the home – with a lack of focus on keeping them safe outside the home.
The report makes a seven-point action plan of recommendations around reducing exclusions from school, boosting attendance, improving support for children with special needs, and creating a ‘consistent multi-agency response’.
The report’s authors, Anna Racher and Caroline Boswell, said there “is still too little known by the partnership in relation to harm outside of the home for agencies to be able to frame an effective response”.
They added: “One of the clearest consequences of this are the concerns that have been raised to this review in relation to disproportionality, adultification and biases that continue to be ‘baked into the system’ for children, young people and their families.
“More open curiosity and robust analysis is needed to underpin effective support and challenge across the partnership in relation to issues of equity, equality, diversity and inclusion.”
A memorial to Max Dixon and Mason Rist in Knowke West – photo: Mia Vines Booth
Independent scrutineer for the Keep Bristol Safe Partnership, Sally Rowe, said: “We welcome the publication of this thematic review, which offers valuable lessons from recent and past incidents of serious youth violence.
“This review is not focused on individual children but rather on how we, as a partnership, can learn and evolve to better protect young people, particularly from harm experienced outside the home.
“Bristol is a youthful and vibrant city and safeguarding the wellbeing of children and families remains our highest priority.
“The death of any child or young person is a profound tragedy, and our hearts go out to the families and communities mourning these losses.
“The recommendations in this review serve as a welcome opportunity to bring our organisations closer together, focus our strategic efforts, and strengthen safeguarding actions.
“And we recognise the need to continuously evolve our approach and practice.”
Main photo: Shanine Wright and Tiffany Williams
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
