‘Truancy behind rise in knife attacks’
Children who skip school are most at risk of offending – we must work together to protect them
Truancy, not exclusion from schools, is a key reason for rising knife crime, says the Education Secretary, as he admits efforts to reduce the number of pupils persistently absent from school have stalled. Writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, Damian Hinds challenges those such as Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, who have claimed the rise in exclusions is behind knife attacks. “A much bigger concern is the number of young people who are ‘persistently absent’ from school,” says Mr Hinds.
TRUANCY is a key reason for rising knife crime, and not exclusion from schools, the Education Secretary has said, as he admitted efforts to reduce the number of pupils persistently absent from school have stalled.
Damian Hinds challenged those such as Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, who have claimed that the rise in exclusions is behind a surge in knife attacks, saying the reality was more complex.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph today, he says: “A much bigger concern is the number of young people who are persistently absent from school.” He cited research that showed four-fifths of young knife offenders had regularly played truant in one of the five years prior to the offence.
One child in 10 is persistently absent while overall unauthorised absence has increased from 1 per cent in 2006 to 1.3 per cent in 2016/17, according to official data. The same trend is expected to be confirmed when the latest figures are published today.
Not only did this mean that the truants were more at risk of drifting into crime, said Mr Hinds, but it also meant that schools were unable to help them because they were not there.
“This is a society-wide challenge that we all need to work together to resolve. It’s not something that a social worker, teacher or police officer can solve by themselves,” he said.
Children could be persistently absent for numerous reasons, he said, “but some are just skipping school. They may be disillusioned, disengaged or from a home where going to school is not top priority.
“It is these children – from homes where parents have experienced one of the trio of mental health problems, domestic violence and substance abuse – that are most at risk of harm or criminal exploitation.”
He said that schools had made progress since 2006 when persistent absence ran at 20 per cent rather than the 10 per cent now. “However, progress has stalled and we need to look again at how we can make sure more young people are at school. We don’t have magic levers to pull in the Department for Education to ensure 100 per cent attendance,” he said.
“Children in need of help and protection from a social worker are around three times more likely than other pupils to be persistently absent from school. These are the children where high-quality education and care services can make a real difference.”
Mr Hinds rejected calls to stop schools from excluding children, noting that four in five knife attacks were by youths aged 18 or over and that only 3 per cent were committed by someone permanently excluded in the previous year.
He said exclusion should be a last resort but warned that it was critical that measures were in place to get children back on track.
♦ Kent police have become the first force in the UK to train all their officers in Taser use after incidents including the use of blades rose 152 per cent between 2010 and 2018, the worst increase in the country.
Home Office figures showed there were 1,112 assaults on police officers between 2017 and 2018.
For a child to be killed is the most heart-wrenching tragedy. And for any child to feel driven to attack, or even murder someone is a tragedy. The recent spate of horrific violence in which young people have lost their lives to knife crime has rightly prompted both outrage and difficult questions about what we can do to prevent such crimes.
As Education Secretary, I have responsibility over those young people who are the most vulnerable in society, those who lack a stable family structure around them, those children in care for whom we are the corporate parents. But I have another interest, as it has been suggested that it is a rise in exclusions from schools that has caused an increase in knife crime. The reality is more complex than that.
Although knife possession offences are rising, it is generally adults that are behind them. Four in five of these are perpetrated by someone aged 18 or over. Only around three per cent of knife attacks are carried out by someone who had been permanently excluded from school in the previous year. Some have suggested that we stop schools from excluding children. This would not be the right thing to do. No teacher, no head teacher, goes into education to exclude a child from it. Exclusion is only something that is done as a last resort.
A permanent exclusion should not be the end of something; it must be the start of something new and positive. We need to do more to make sure that exclusion starts a conversation about what support that troubled young person needs to get back on track.
A much bigger concern is the number of young people who are “persistently absent” from school. One study showed that four-fifths of young knife crime offenders were persistently absent from education in one of the last five years prior to the offence.
With about one in ten children absent persistently, this is a societywide challenge that we all need to work together to resolve. It’s not something that a social worker or police officer can solve by themselves.
Children may be absent persistently from school for a number of reasons – like long term illness – but some of them are just skipping school. They may be disillusioned, disengaged or ultimately coming from a home where going to school is not the top of the priority list.
It is these children – children from homes where parents have experienced mental health problems, domestic violence or substance abuse – that are most at risk of harm or criminal exploitation.
Children in need of help from a social worker are about three times more likely than other pupils to be absent from school persistently. These are the children where high-quality education and care services can make a real difference.
We have made progress since 2006, when the threshold for being persistently absent was not turning up to school for 20 per cent of the time; now, it is 10 per cent. Today, the authorities in charge of protecting children are working closer together to support the most vulnerable, so that we improve their outcomes at school.
However, the progress made in recent years has stalled, and we need to look again at how we can make sure more young people are present in school. The truth is that we don’t have the magic levers to pull in the Department for Education to ensure 100 per cent attendance.
Education can help steer vulnerable children – whether it is through mainstream school or alternative provision – but clearly those young people need to be in school for this to work. The attainment gap has narrowed since 2010, but the key initiatives – everything from our focus on phonics to Pupil Premium funding for disadvantaged students – will only work if that child is in school.
Great teachers and excellent schools make a huge difference in children’s lives. But clearly schools cannot and should not be expected to look after these vulnerable children alone. This is a shared responsibility with the dedicated, hard-working professionals working across local health and community services, in the police and, of course, children’s social care. Together we will strive to provide the necessary safeguards to these vulnerable young people.
Damian Hinds is the Secretary of State for Education