‘County lines’ blamed for rise in school exclusions

SCHOOL exclusions for drugs and alcohol have risen by 57 per cent in five years, an analysis of official data shows, as “county lines” gangs are blamed.

Criminal groups recruiting youths to carry drugs around the country has also led to a steep rise in teenagers being convicted and prosecuted for intent to supply drugs, the report says.

An analysis of Department for Education (DFE) figures shows the number of children excluded permanently from secondary school due to drugs or alcohol is at its highest on record.

In 2016-17, 565 children in England were excluded permanently for drugs or alcohol, up from 360 five years earlier and the highest since this data collection began in 2006-07.

During the same five-year period, there was a 90 per cent rise in prosecutions of 15-year-olds for possession with intent to supply drugs, from 29 in 2012-13 to 55 in 2016-17. A report by Volteface, a think-tank specialising in drug policy, and Mentor UK, a drug education charity, warns that gangs are increasingly targeting children to run “county lines”, which facilitate the supply of class A drugs from urban areas to smaller towns.

Boris Pomroy, CEO of Mentor UK, said that many vulnerable children were being treated as criminals and excluded from school when in fact they should be seen as victims.

“The reality is that if you put vulnerable people outside the mainstream school system you are likely to make them more vulnerable still,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “If you have a 14 or 15-year-old who is using or supplying drugs to friends, and mysteriously disappearing from school, I would like to see head teachers asking why that is happening, rather than expelling them. I understand why schools do what they do. But there are young people being failed by the system.”

Earlier this year, Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, provoked a backlash from teachers by claiming that the rise in exclusions was behind a surge in knife attacks.

Students who have been excluded temporarily or permanently are sent to pupil referral units (PRUS), where they are given specialist support.

Sam Walters, headmaster of Redbridge Alternative Provision, a PRU in Redbridge, Ilford, said that schools needed to “think creatively” and address underlying issues rather than exclude children immediately. He said: “Schools should not just being saying ‘this young person is dealing drugs, they can’t be here anymore’. They need to ask why.

“No young person aspires to sleep rough, running drugs up and down the country. It is manipulative how they are manoeuvred into that position.”

Liz Mcculloch, director of policy at Volteface, said there was an “urgent need” for ministers to adopt a fresh approach to drug-related harm.