School expulsions fuel rise in youth crime, say experts

Young people ‘more likely’ to get involved in gang violence and drug dealing after being excluded

SCHOOL expulsions could be fuelling a rise in crime among children, a Home Office report has warned.

Experts said teenagers who were kicked out of school were more vulnerable to getting caught up in gang violence and “county lines” drug operations, as data revealed the number of young people excluded from school has been rising steadily over the last few years.

Research by The Daily Telegraph shows that in areas where school expulsions are high, rates of crime recorded among young people are also higher. The number of children found in possession of a knife or offensive weapon has risen by 65 per cent in the last four years alone.

It came as Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, announced new measures to tackle gangs which use “county lines” networks – where drugs are ferried across the country by dealers exploiting often young and vulnerable people – and promised new money to tackle the deep-rooted causes of youth violence.

The most recent figures available for 2015-16 show there were 6,685 permanent exclusions, an increase of 15.4 per cent compared to the previous year. This equates to 35 children being expelled from English primary, sec- ondary and specialist schools every school day.

The number has risen every year since 2012-13, when 4,630 children were excluded. Between 2012 and 2015 there was a 44.4 per cent increase in children taken out of mainstream education, according to data from the Department for Education.

When plotted against the exclusions data, Office for National Statistics figures show Birmingham had the highest rate of young people involved in crime and also the second highest rate of exclusions per year according to the most recent data.

Lancashire had the highest rate of exclusions and the second highest rate of youth crime.

The Serious Violence Strategy also revealed a 77 per cent increase in the number of 10- to 17-year olds convicted of class A drug production or intent to supply between 2012 and 2016.

There are fears that gangs that run drug operations around the UK are recruiting vulnerable young people who are not in school and have chaotic home lives, which could explain the rise in class A drug convictions.

The strategy, published yesterday, set out how an increase in the number of vulnerable young people could be to rising violent crime. It stated: “Data show that numbers of children in care, excluded children and homelessness amongst adults have all risen since 2014. The evidence suggests that being in care and school exclusion are markers for increased risk of both victimisation and perpetration and also substance abuse.

“While this does not mean there is a causal link between increases in the most vulnerable and serious violence, these groups possess some of the factors that puts them at higher risk of being exploited for offences such as drug market related violence.”

It also concluded that “evidence shows that children excluded from school are overrepresented in young offender populations. They are also overrepresented as victims of serious violence”.

The Department for Education is currently conducting a review of how exclusions work across England amid fears when children are kicked out of mainstream education they are often lost to gangs.

David Lammy, the Labour MP, told The Daily Telegraph that some schools were excluding problem pupils in order to drive up standards.

He said: “Our schools are doing better than they have ever done in London ... but almost as a consequence of those kids doing well there’s a big group who fall out the system and one of the drivers of that is academies.

“One of the ways that schools drive up standards is to exclude young people from school.”

Children are sent to a Pupil Referral Unit but Mr Lammy said there are “real issues” about the standard of teaching in such facilities.

“They’re basically holding cells and there are some that aren’t even that because the pupils don’t turn up”, he said, adding: “The pipeline from those places to young offender institutes is real.”

The most common reason for permanent exclusion in 2015/16 was persistent disruptive behaviour, with 34.6 per cent of children, 2,310, being excluded because of this.

Almost 11 per cent were excluded due to physical assault against an adult, while a further nine per cent were excluded because of verbal abuse or threatening behaviour against an adult.