Beating County Lines (and other things to do before lunch)

This title offers the reader an ambitious overview of the entire problem of the child criminal exploitation and 'County Lines' drug dealing epidemic in the United Kingdom.

Organised criminality has evolved to target children and young people at younger and younger ages - making profit from their false expectations, their early life trauma, and from their vulnerability.

The illegal market for drugs in the UK is worth billions - but the distribution network has become increasingly dependent on child runners who move this illicit product out of major cities and into suburban and rural areas.

While the drug supply chain has been evolving, the support for children and young people has been receding - with an unprecedented decline in funding in all major areas of public service provision. While Social Care thresholds get higher and more difficult to reach, the National Probation Service has to contend with verminous buildings and outdated office and IT facilities. Neighbourhood Policing has been on the decline and the government chooses infrastructure projects such as HS2 high speed rail link over the need to reinforce the safety of a generation of children now living below the poverty line.

This is an incendiary journey that will take you up close to some of the real children and young people who have suffered significant harm from their experiences with this world. It will explain criminal radicalisation. It will show you the self harm, the violence and the suicide. It will show you that this is not just a problem for an underclass - children of all backgrounds are feeling increasingly drawn to this tragic and violent world.

Phil Priestley served 17 years as a police officer 'on the front line' - as a Detective Sergeant investigating crime, and as Neighbourhood Policing Sergeant trying to prevent and reduce it. Today he works in schools helping to support young people at risk of criminal seduction and exploitation - keeping them in mainstream education and away from the risks associated with falling into 'alternative provision'.

This is an account that is unflinching and honest. It asks searching questions of everyone - is this situation our fault? How did we allow this to happen to our children?

This journey culminates in logical conclusions and recommendations. It asks the reader to draw their own thoughts together. It invites us all to do what needs to be done collectively and to hold our decision makers to account for collective negligence and failures. This is not a party political issue - this is a cross spectrum responsibility that nobody can reasonably ignore.