Youth justice and escalation pathways

Between April 2023 and September 2025 there were a total of 626 children referred to the youth justice service, 512 (81.8%) of whom were boys. The first six months of 2025 to 2026 have seen a lower number of referrals into the service. Though the reasons for this drop cannot be specifically attributed to a cause, the Pol-Ed resource was introduced on June 2nd 2025. This is a police resource for use in schools designed to help teachers deliver lesson around relationships and consent, the law, keeping safe and wellbeing.

Local Youth Justice Service referral patterns show that most contact occurs before statutory court involvement. Over a third of referrals (35.8%) relate to prevention activity, with a further 13.5% involving early assessment to understand risk or suitability for diversion. Around one third of referrals (32.5%) are managed through out-of-court resolutions, indicating a strong emphasis on diversion where offending does occur. Statutory youth justice supervision accounts for fewer than one in five referrals (18.3%), representing a smaller but higher-need group. This distribution highlights the importance of effective early intervention to prevent escalation into formal justice pathways.

Of 101 children involved with Cumberland Youth Justice Service in December 2025, 27 (26.7%) were receiving support for drug use, three (3.0%) for alcohol and ten (9.9%) support for both drugs and alcohol. During March 2025 to September 2025 the most common criminal charges associated with children referred for intervention were ‘theft/robbery/burglary’, ‘assault/ABH/ violence’ and ‘threatening/harassment/stalking’.

Online influences

In recent years, there has been growing concern about the influence of online content that promotes rigid or harmful models of masculinity, often referred to as the “manosphere”. High-profile online figures have been associated with messages that emphasise dominance, emotional suppression, entitlement and misogyny, raising concerns about their potential impact on boys’ attitudes, relationships and behaviour.

Around half of professionals working with boys and young men surveyed at the end of 2025 identified exposure to harmful online influencers as a driver of need. Trauma, emotional suppression, school disengagement, low aspiration and poor mental health were more frequently cited. When asked specifically about the impacts of online influencers, 8 out of 53 professionals answered ‘a lot’ or ‘very significantly’.

This suggests that while digital environments warrant ongoing attention, focus should lie on preventing the underlying factors that leave young children open to influence from online sources that result in susceptibility, such as early abandonment, family dysfunction and psychological vulnerabilities (Campelo et al., 2018).

Place of birth: the coastal disadvantage

The social and economic conditions children grow up in have a lasting influence on their mental health, educational engagement and life chances. Young adults in coastal communities have disproportionality poor mental health. National longitudinal research following adolescents in England found that young adults living in the most deprived coastal areas experienced around three times the risk of undiagnosed mental distress compared with young adults in inland areas with similar levels of deprivation. The key driver of this difference was household socioeconomic circumstances (Murray et al., 2025).

The authors of this research emphasise that reducing mental health inequalities in coastal communities requires both improved access to timely support and sustained action on underlying socioeconomic drivers. Recommended national actions include reducing waiting times for mental health treatment in deprived coastal areas, increasing investment in preventative programmes for young people, and prioritising the development of Young Futures Hubs in communities with the highest burden of need. At a local level, the research highlights the importance of setting clear improvement targets for young people’s mental health and committing to long-term investment in education, employment, housing and transport, recognising that mental health outcomes are shaped as much by opportunity and infrastructure as by clinical provision.

In Cumberland, many children grow up in coastal, post-industrial communities where deprivation, limited access to services and economic insecurity are more prevalent. These conditions shape health from the very earliest stages of life. Indicators such as infant mortality, early childhood emergency department attendances, and developmental outcomes consistently show social gradients.

Professional insights regarding the needs of boys and young men in Cumberland

Predominate themes around the needs of boys and young men in Cumberland gathered from surveyed professionals can be seen in Figure 23. Within the free text ‘other’ options, unmet neurodiversity needs were highlighted three times. One professional highlighted feelings of inadequacy amongst boys who ‘are not enough’ for major local employers, with one further professional citing financial concerns as an issue, particularly for the oldest child. These, together with high levels of reported needs around low aspiration and future insecure employment concerns highlights an early awareness of opportunities, and lack of, impacting the wellbeing of young men.

The majority of respondents reported that boys and young men often or almost always hold back from seeking help when they need it. Stigma around emotions, fear of looking weak and distrust of services were the three leading reported reasons for boys and young men not engaging with support when needed. The vast majority (93%) of respondents reported that local cultural norms around stoicism had a medium to very high impact. Box 2 presents an example of local work being completed to support the development of health masculinities by The Little Blackbird, founded by Adrian and Claire Dakers.

Where support is effective, professional insight points strongly towards relational and practical approaches. Boys and young men were reported to respond best to activitiesbased engagement, one-to-one relational support, and trusted adults or positive male role models. Digital-only provision and crisis-led responses were identified as less effective.

These findings reinforce the importance of preventative, community-embedded approaches that build relationships before crisis point, rather than relying on self-referral into clinical or online pathways.

Box 2: The Little Blackbird

Founded by Ade & Claire Dakers, Little Blackbird are a well-being focused organisation that offers impactful Training, Workshops and Social Value projects, across Education, Business & Community settings. Specialising in masculinity and well-being, their mission is to positively challenge cultures and beliefs by delivering programmes that improve communication, strengthen emotional intelligence and explore the power of vulnerability.

Little Blackbird created one of their core projects, “The Man I Want To Become” in 2022 following the tragic loss of a friend to suicide. Built on lived experience, it is an early-intervention, film-led initiative that supports young people to explore healthy masculinity, improve communication, strengthen emotional resilience and understand accountability. It can be delivered in schools, grassroots sport, community projects and adapted for adult groups within the same settings. Little Blackbird strives to challenge cultures and stereotypes related to old age perceptions of masculinity which are no longer fit for purpose, instead creating new ideas around what it means to be a boy/ man, and promoting a better understanding of what positive expressions of masculinity look like.

In November 2025, Little Blackbird delivered “The Man I Want To Become” project with the U16 team at Workington Zebras RFC, in collaboration with Morgan Sindall Construction as a Social Value Partner. The project was a resounding success, with exceptional feedback;

Quotes from some of lads who participated in the project;

“I’ve learnt that it’s okay to show your emotions and to know how to be brave. To really check on each other and to share how you feel, and to look at being a man not as being powerful, but being brave to share what you feel”

“Lads talking is something we need to be encouraging in this area. Times are changing and us in Cumbria are stuck in the past where men weren’t allowed to talk about their feelings”

Parents feedback;

“It’s made my lads understand that it’s ok to not be ok and we all need to vent about things that are getting us down and to understand that there’s always an answer”

Ade’s vision to create a safe space for men to have real conversations saw the introduction of the Little Blackbird podcast, “Tackling it Together” in 2024. A true labour of love, Tackling it Together has already had immeasurable impact and is now a core part of Little Blackbird’s Social Value offering. With a wide range of themes covered, Ade promotes honest and vulnerable connections and powerful conversations, demonstrating that two fellas can sit down and have an open and authentic chat without a pint.

Contact: [email protected]

Summary

This chapter has demonstrated that many of the inequalities observed in men’s health in Cumberland begin early in life. Differences in development, emotional wellbeing, educational engagement and system contact emerge in childhood and adolescence, particularly among boys growing up in deprived and coastal communities and those experiencing cumulative adversity.

For boys, adversity is more likely to be expressed through behavioural change, disengagement or externalising distress. When these responses are met primarily through disciplinary or fragmented systems rather than early, coordinated support, disadvantage is more likely to escalate than resolve. Over time, this reduces protective factors, narrows opportunities and increases exposure to further risk.

These experiences shape how men relate to employment, identity and support in later life, and set the scene for poor mental health, substance use and premature mortality observed among men in Cumberland.

The following chapter examines how these early disadvantages interact with work, place and identity in adulthood, and how economic structure and labour market conditions can either compound or mitigate the risks established earlier in the life course.