The riots of 2011 firmly placed gang and youth violence in England in the headlines. Since then, there continues to be mainstream interest in these issues and its resolution is a high priority for government and local places.

Many local places are taking a multi-agency approach to tackling youth violence and commissioning activities that divert and prevent young people from becoming engaged in gang culture.

Bringing services together to ensure the best outcomes for their young people and communities relies on effective information sharing – making this an area of interest for the Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing (CEIS), which is working with local places to understand the barriers that prevent effective information sharing and supports them in finding practical solutions to overcome them.

To get under the skin of some of the information sharing issues affecting local areas in tackling gangs and youth violence, the CEIS recently brought together a number of local places, including Waltham Forest, Nottingham and Margate, to discuss the challenges they faced.