New schools for troubled children to combat knife crime

ALMOST 40 new schools are to be built for troubled children as part of the Government’s response to the knife crime epidemic.

Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary, will announce today that 3,500 extra school places will be created, many of which are intended for pupils who have been expelled from mainstream schools.

Knife crime deaths in England and Wales have reached the highest level since records began in 1946, with a spate of recent murders claiming the lives of teenagers across Britain. Police commissioners wrote to Theresa May, the Prime Minister, last week warning that children who were expelled or suspended from school were being “sucked into criminality”.

Almost a quarter of children caught carrying knives have been expelled or suspended, and knife offenders are four times as likely to have special educational needs as other pupils.

Ministers hope that keeping more vulnerable children in education will have a direct impact on the crisis.

Official figures show knife crime is rising four times as fast outside London as it is in the capital. The 34 English and Welsh counties recorded a 45.7 per cent average increase in knife-related offences since 2010, compared with an 11 per cent increase in London.

A total of 39 new free schools will be built in England to provide places for children with special educational needs or those who have been excluded from mainstream education. In 2016-17, the latest year for which figures are available, 7,720 children were expelled from school and around 381,000 were suspended.

Two of the schools will cater solely for children who have been expelled and have no other school willing to take them.

Both of the so-called alternative provision schools will be in the West Midlands, the region with the third-highest level of knife crime in the country. All of the schools will be paid for out of a £250 million fund for high needs schools announced last December, and all are expected to be open by 2021. The

move was praised as a positive step towards combating knife crime by Leora Cruddas, the chief executive of the Confederation of Schools Trusts.

She said: “Over the past week, there has been much debate in the media about children and young people whose social, emotional and behavioural needs make them vulnerable.

“Today’s announcement of a range of specialist provision in every region of the country is hugely welcome.”

Every region of the country will be given at least one of the new schools, with the highest number of places to be created in Yorkshire and the Humber – which is second only to London for its knife crime rate – and the South West, both of which will have 500 extra school places.

As well as catering for children who have been expelled from other schools, the free schools will in some areas provide places for children with autism, severe learning difficulties or mental health conditions.

Free schools are the only kind of new schools that receive funding under current Government policy. There are already 34 special and 42 alternative provision (AP) free schools in England, with another 54 special and 12 AP schools already in the pipeline. It means that by 2021 there will be 125 special free schools and 56 AP schools.

“We want every school to be a school for children with special educational needs and disabilities,” said Mr Hinds.

‘Today’s announcement of a range of specialist provision in every region of the country is hugely welcome’

“We are investing significant funding into Special Education Needs units attached to mainstream schools and in additional support so children with education, health and care plans can access mainstream education.

“But we recognise some children require more specialist support. These new special free schools and alternative provision schools will make sure that more complex needs can be provided to help support every child to have a quality education.”