Teachers, NHS workers and police officers in England and Wales could be held accountable for failing to spot violent crime among young people under government plans announced on Monday.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has launched a consultation to assess whether there is a "public health duty" to report concerns over children at risk. He said he will use "all the tools" at his disposal to end violent crime. But unions for teachers and NHS staff have raised concerns about the plans. A summit on serious youth violence is being held at Downing Street this week.
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: "Neither the blame for, or the solution to, violent crime can be laid at the door of schools or front-line hospital staff."
She said schools already had "strong safeguarding practices in place" and added: "The problem is what happens after issues of concern have been identified."
The Royal College of Nursing, meanwhile, expressed concerns that obligations to report people involved in violent crime could deter people "from seeking help for fear of being reported".
The government says its plan is intended to "help spot the warning signs that a young person could be in danger, such as presenting in A&E with suspicious injury, to worrying behaviour at school or issues at home".
Mr Javid called violent crime "a disease rotting our society" and said he was "committed to ending this scourge". "The public health, multi-agency approach has a proven track record and I'm confident that making it a legal duty will help stop this senseless violence and create long-term change," he added.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Children's Commissioner for England Anne Longfield said agencies such as schools "don't often feel that they've got the tools or the systems" to know what to do with children who might be involved in, or at risk of, violent crime. She added: "We've got to think of more creative and effective ways to help these children."
