Teen bans for drugs and booze

SCORES of schoolchildren across the county, some as young as 12, are being excluded for drug and alcohol related issues.

And the numbers of pupils being banned, mainly in their early teens, is on the rise.

Across Leicestershire in schools still run by the county council 29 girls and 55 boys were given permanent or fixed period exclusion orders during the last school year.

This compares to 17 girls and 49 boys in the academic year 2015-16.

These figures do not include private colleges or self-governing academies, the numbers of which are growing.

The local statistics come as the Department for Education reveals 9,250 pupils across the country were expelled for drugs and alcohol. A decade ago the figure was 8,580.

Ivan Ould, Leicestershire County Council cabinet member for children and families, said: “While there has been a slight increase in the number of drug and alcohol related exclusions in 2016/17 compared with 2015/16, overall, for both primary and secondary aged pupils, we have lower rates of exclusions compared to other authorities.

“We have strong school to school support systems in place to support schools with pupils at risk of exclusion.”

In the national exclusion league Yorkshire and Humber were top with a staggering 5,000 plus orders handed to children in 2015-16 for a variety of reasons.

A report from the Institute of Policy Research suggests nearly 75% of the adult prison population were at some point excluded from school pointing to a clear pattern and the need for further intervention.

Overall across Leicestershire almost twice as many boys as girls were excluded. They comprised four girls and two boys in Year 7, six girls and three boys in Year 8, 21 boys and five girls in Year 9, four girls and 13 boys in Year 10, eight girls and 15 boys in Year 11, one boy and one girl in Year 12 and one girl in Year 13.