County Lines 2024: What the NCA's Data Shows and How Schools Must Respond

What Are County Lines?

County lines is the term used by UK law enforcement to describe a model of drug supply in which criminal gangs — predominantly based in urban cities — use dedicated mobile phone lines to sell Class A drugs (typically heroin and crack cocaine) into smaller towns, rural areas, and coastal communities. The name refers to the act of crossing county (or police force) boundaries to operate the supply route.

What makes county lines a safeguarding crisis — not just a crime problem — is that gangs systematically recruit, exploit, and traffic children and vulnerable adults to carry drugs, collect debts, and man the "lines." These individuals are victims, not perpetrators, of the supply chain — a distinction that remains poorly understood in some parts of the criminal justice system.

The 2024 Picture: What the NCA Data Shows

~2,000

active county lines (NCA estimate, 2024)^[1]

27,000+

children at risk of CCE (Children's Commissioner, 2023)^[2]

£2bn

estimated annual value of county lines drug supply^[1]

average age of entry into county lines exploitation (NCA)^[1]

The National Crime Agency's 2024 reporting confirms that county lines remains one of the most serious organised crime threats to communities across England and Wales. The NCA has identified approximately 2,000 active county lines, though true prevalence is believed to be significantly higher due to under-reporting and misidentification of victims.^[1]

Children and young people remain the most commonly exploited group. The NCA notes that UK nationals — predominantly young Black males, though the demographic is broadening — represent the largest group referred through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) as potential victims of county lines exploitation. Critically, the NCA emphasises that the demographic profile of at-risk young people is far wider than stereotypes suggest: white rural teenagers, young women, and children with SEND are increasingly identified as victims.^[1]

How Gangs Recruit in Schools

County lines recruiters do not typically approach children in a visible, alarming way. Instead, exploitation begins with relationship-building — what professionals call "grooming." The NCA has identified several specific routes through which school-age children are drawn into county lines networks:

Peer recruitment: An existing contact — often a slightly older student or a school peer — introduces the young person to the gang network, providing social status and gifts.
Social media targeting: Gangs actively use Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and gaming platforms to identify young people expressing financial stress, family difficulties, or social isolation. "Flexing" content (showing cash, designer clothes, cars) is deliberately used as aspirational bait.^[3]
Exclusion targeting: Children who are excluded from school, permanently or temporarily, become significantly more vulnerable. The NSPCC has documented that school exclusion is a key risk factor for county lines entry — children without school structure have both more time and more exposure to street-level recruitment.^[4]
Care leaver targeting: Looked After Children and care leavers are disproportionately represented in county lines victim data. Gangs specifically target young people in care placements, recognising their reduced adult supervision and heightened vulnerability.^[2]

Warning Signs: What Schools Should Look For

Unexplained absences or persistent lateness — particularly at the start or end of school days
New, expensive items — phones, trainers, jewellery — without a plausible explanation
Multiple mobile phones, or a phone that is never out of sight
Associations with older individuals or a new peer group the family does not know
Withdrawal from normal friends; secrecy and evasiveness when asked about whereabouts
Signs of physical harm: unexplained injuries, fearfulness, or covering skin in warm weather
Slang or terminology associated with drug supply (e.g. "trapping," "on the road," "shotting")

What KCSIE 2024 Requires Schools to Do

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024 (KCSIE), which came into force on 2 September 2024, makes explicit that county lines and child criminal exploitation are forms of abuse that fall within a school's safeguarding responsibilities. Schools must:

Train all staff to recognise the indicators of CCE, including county lines exploitation, as part of their mandatory safeguarding training (Part One of KCSIE).
Have a named DSL who is trained to at least Level 2 in the Contextual Safeguarding framework and who understands the county lines referral pathway in their local area.
Maintain robust absence monitoring — unexplained absence must be followed up and, where CCE is a concern, referred to the local MASH rather than treated as a pastoral matter.
Share information with police and other agencies proportionately and proactively — schools should not wait for a criminal investigation to share relevant information about a child's welfare.
Consider Section 47 enquiries where there is reasonable cause to suspect a child is suffering or at risk of significant harm through exploitation.

Under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Section 45), children who commit offences as a result of county lines exploitation have a statutory defence. Schools should be aware that a student who is found in possession of drugs or weapons may be a victim, not a perpetrator, and should be treated accordingly.

Key Action for Your School: The Contextual Safeguarding Approach

County lines risk does not begin and end at the school gate. The Contextual Safeguarding framework (Firmin, 2019) — now embedded in KCSIE 2024 — recognises that harm occurs in peer groups, online, and in communities, not only within families. Schools should map the contexts in which their students experience harm, build intelligence on local gang activity through police partnerships, and ensure that their safeguarding response extends into the environments where exploitation takes place.

Sources: [1] National Crime Agency (2024). County Lines 2024: NCA Intelligence Assessment. nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk. [2] Children's Commissioner (2023). Vulnerability Report: Children at risk of criminal exploitation. childrenscommissioner.gov.uk. [3] CEOP (2023). Threat Assessment of Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse 2023. ceop.police.uk. [4] NSPCC (2023). County Lines: Child criminal exploitation and drug supply. nspcc.org.uk. [5] HM Government (2024). Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024. gov.uk. [6] HM Government (2015). Modern Slavery Act 2015, Section 45. legislation.gov.uk.