Wilshaw cites Middlesbrough exclusions in knife crime debate
A panel of experts has clashed over whether or not school exclusions drive up knife crime during a sitting of the House of Commons Education Selection Committee this week.
One expert, Will Linden, the Deputy Director of Violence Reduction Unit Scotland, stated that exclusion from school is the biggest driver of criminal activity among young people. Following this Carlie Thomas, a Senior Caseworker at St Giles Trust, added that – in her experience – excluding students from school can lead to an increased risk of those students being groomed by gang leaders.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, former Chief Inspector of Schools in England claimed that the Local Authority area with the highest number of exclusions is Middlesbrough, with Redcar and Cleveland also in the top ten. While Wilshaw repeated his view that secondary schools in the north needed to improve, he highlighted that there was no correlation between high rates of exclusion and knife crime in places like Middlesbrough.
However Linden argued that the issue of violence – from bullying to knife crime – has the same drivers in London and the North East, and that the quality of schooling was not an influencing factor.
For every 100,000 people in the North East, there were around 40 knife offences in 2017-18, compared to 168 offences for every 100,000 people in London.
Meanwhile, Gateshead MP Ian Mearns asked the panel what they wanted to see police doing in schools. The experts, including Assistant Commissioner Simmons, agreed that schools and police forces need to develop better relationships. Wilshaw expressed criticism of the police, stating that Police Community Support Officers change too frequently. He said that the police needed to develop long-term relationships with schools.
Thomas also emphasised that schools need to develop relationships with families. She reported that some parents discover their children are involved in gangs and possess knives, but do not report this to schools or the police because they fear it will lead to them being taken away from the family.
When focusing on how to challenge the crisis Linden claimed more money was not necessarily the solution. Instead, he suggested that system changes and cultural and attitudinal shifts were more important. In his view, too many services – including the police and social services – operate in isolation and were working on pursuing their own targets, rather than working together to put the needs of the child first.
Thomas agreed that a culture shift was needed. She suggested that Pupil Referral Units should not be referred to as “PRUs”, but that a PRU’s students should be allowed to name it and develop its sense of identity.
Wilshaw had a different view, however, suggesting that “deeply troubled” students with mental health issues needed early intervention – rather than exclusion – but stated that the reduction in school budgets made this harder to deliver. There was, he said, “undoubtedly a connection” between reduced funding and increased exclusions in some schools.
The committee will take the expert views under consideration for a report to be published about the inquiry.