YOUNGSTERS moving to Essex from London and lax school timetables are meaning more young people are getting involved with drug gangs and knife crime.

Essex County Council has asked its people and families policy and scrutiny committee to explore the issue in the county.

A report set to go before the committee said the number of young people involved in county lines dealing, where organised gangs exploit children to deal drugs, has increased over the past two years.

It comes as County Hall agreed to put £500,000 towards a partnership to help young people in its annual budget.

Council leader David Finch described county lines as “a real and present danger”.

The report said the Youth Offending Service and social work teams had seen “significant increases” in possession with intent to supply charges and offences involving violence.

More than 100 youngsters are being supported by a gang prevention service rolled out last year.

But the report by Tanya Gillett, head of the Youth Offending Service, said more work was needed to tackle the problem.

As many as 28 young people have been placed in foster care or in supported accommodation in Essex by London councils.

The report said: “There is a pressing need to create proactive, rather than reactive, regular dialogue with London boroughs especially around opportunities to share intelligence on use of supported independent accommodation by London boroughs, which is currently an area of concern.

“As SIAs are unregulated accommodation units there is no opportunity for Essex Children’s Social Care to intervene nor are Ofsted able to apply regulatory pressure for any unit not delivering a good service.

“However, more could be done with district councils who can apply restrictions under the planning regulations and this has been done with good outcomes in parts of Essex.”

The report also said young people who were not in school were being drawn in by the “rewards” of drug dealing.

It said: “There are also too many young people who are not in school (either because they have inadequate part time tables or have been encouraged not to attend) and this is having a negative impact upon enabling them to think about their futures and makes the lure of the so called financial rewards harder to resist.”

The report said information sharing was an ongoing issue and more needed to be done to with outside agencies.

Councillors are set to decide which lines of enquiry to take and how to progress a review at a meeting on Thursday.