Gang violence is so prevalent in big cities that probation officers must ensure that offenders avoid rival groups’ territories when travelling to meetings.

Rivalry between gangs in parts of Birmingham, Liverpool and London is so fierce that young offenders are not safe going to attend appointments with probation officers, counsellors and other specialists.

The difficulties were disclosed in a report on the Youth Offending Team in Southwark, South London. Probation officers said that similar problems had emerged in the West Midlands and Merseyside.

Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said that offenders were often reluctant to attend meetings that involved crossing the territory of a rival gang.

The inspection report estimated that up to 200 youths in Peckham alone were involved in gang-related crime. “Southwark was a borough that had significant problems in respect to gang-related offences and violent crimes committed by and against other youths,” it said.

“This meant that staff had to carefully consider factors such as where appointments were held with children and young people and, if travelling together, which route would be safest.”

Random searches of young offenders, their parents and carers visiting the team’s offices also take place after police voiced their concern.

The inspection also said that there were concerns that youngsters were being recruited into gangs while in Feltham Young Offender Institution and Remand Centre in Middlesex.

Youth offending teams, made up of representatives from the police and agencies including social services operate in every local council area in England and Wales.

The inspection was a joint operation involving the prisons, education and probation inspectorates.

A Southwark Council spokesperson said: “Random searches of people entering Southwark’s Youth Offending Team headquarters by police officers, who are part of this multi-agency team, are simply part of our business as usual – and no weapons have ever been found.

“However, these searches do send the clear message that carrying a weapon has legal consequences, and that it is a priority to protect people’s safety and that of those around them.”

A separate report by researchers at Manchester University, who worked closely with members of six gangs in the city, has meanwhile challenged elements of thinking behind official strategies to curb gang and knife crime.

The study concluded that in general gangs were not tightly organised and that their violence was not provoked by conflicts over turf.

Rather than specialising in drug dealing, it found that members of the gangs it studied tended to get by on a mix of paid employment, benefits, assistance from friends and family and opportunist crime such as some drug dealing and street robbery.

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