NHS England (London Region) County Lines Workshop Afternoon Workshop - 11th September 2019

"County Lines" is a significant safeguarding issue that can involve the coercion of children, young people and adults at risk into drug trafficking behaviours, ‘pushing’ drugs from urban areas to more rural areas of England. The Police believe that there are over 1500 trafficking routes that organised crime/gangs use to transport drugs across the country. People from a range of different backgrounds and circumstances are drawn into engaging in ‘county lines’ activities, ie. looked after children, children who have been excluded from schools and are in pupil referral units, people who are made to ‘pay off debts’, people who feel that there are limited economic prospects in their local community, etc. As with all safeguarding concerns, ‘county lines’ intersects with other safeguarding areas such as: violence against women and girls; safeguarding those with a learning disability, etc.

Last year, under the Modern Slavery Act a drug dealer was convicted of "county lines" related offences.

This year, the National Crime Agency estimated the total turnover of all county lines activities throughout the UK as roughly £500 million.

Given this, the NHS England Safeguarding Programme team would like to invite all key stakeholders to this ‘county lines’ event. We welcome those professionals from both government and non-government organisations working towards ending county lines activities.

The aims of the event are to:

• Raise awareness around the coercive process that children, young people and adults at risk of abuse and neglect may have been through
• Discuss safeguarding against ‘county lines’ with a range of different professionals from both the government and non-government sectors
• Work together to strengthen regional consensus on county lines
• Help NHS England to gain a deeper understanding of some of the challenges that other agencies face with regards to ‘county lines’ and how we can all improve working together across the region to address this issue
• Networking among professionals

Questions about this event?

Name: National Safeguarding Team

Email:safeguarding@nhs.net

Telephone:011382 49503