Violent crime is everybody’s problem – everybody has to do their bit

One of the new PCC’s first jobs has been to establish Northumbria’s first Violence Reduction Unit.

Based at the commissioner’s office, on Newcastle’s Balliol Business Park, the unit brings together police, six local authorities, health agencies and community representatives, who will work together to tackle violence by understanding the causes, so long-term preventative action can be put in place.

The need to take action was put into stark focus just weeks after the new commissioner was elected, when teenager Ewan Ireland stabbed lawyer Peter Duncan to death, in Eldon Square.

Ireland, who was just 17 when he attacked the dad with a screwdriver, has since pleaded guilty to murder and will be sentenced in December.

Earlier this month,

The Chronicle revealed how the killer, of West Avenue, in Westerhope, had earlier been expelled from Walbottle Campus School.

Ms McGuinness believes expelling pupils from school simply passes the problem on to someone else.

She added: “One of the things that has worked in Scotland is to stop excluding children from education. We need an approach where everybody says this is all of our problem.”

The National Education Union’s regional secretary Mike McDonald has backed Ms McGuinness’s calls to ban exclusions. But Mr McDonald said academies and free schools also had to play their role by not passing disruptive pupils on to local authority-run schools, which could be in danger of becoming dumping grounds for problem kids.

He told The Chronicle: “The education system is a mess at the

Kim McGuinness

Ewan Ireland

minute. If an academy expels a child, the local authority has to find that child a school place, but part of the mess is we are not allowed to build more local authority schools.

“And we have got this system where schools are under close scrutiny for exam results, so if some children are less able, or less academic, or have behaviour issues and are going to bring these schools down, then we get schools off-rolling them.

“As a union we believe every child has a right to get a good education and we don’t want to see children expelled.”

It’s an issue explored in Ken Loach’s new film, Sorry We Missed You, which tells the story of delivery worker Ricky and his wife Abbie, a nurse, both on zero hours contracts, and the huge strain this puts on their family life.

The industry most affected by zero hours contracts is accommodation and food, with 24% of workers on this type of contract. It’s followed by health and social work – including carers like Abbie – at 17% of workers, plus transport, arts and other services – which includes delivery drivers like Ricky – at 15%.

One of the things that has worked in Scotland is to stop excluding children from education.

From the team that brought you comes in cinemas tomorrow