Biggest threat is whether children get home safely, says crime expert

THE BIGGEST national threat facing the UK is whether children are going to make it home from school safely, an expert has said.

Stabbings and youth violence have been under the spotlight following a string of fatal attacks on Britain’s streets over the last few weeks. Criminologist and urban youth specialist Craig Pinkney said both long and short-term measures were needed to address the crisis.

He said long-term he would like to see a public health approach adopted, but in the shortterm “emergency money” is needed. “I am talking as simple as school buses that bring children from their estates, from home, to school, with maybe community workers that are on these buses escorting young people to and from school, to and from colleges,” Mr Pinkney said as an example.

Last November, research published by journal BMJ Open suggested the period immediately after classes end accounts for a large proportion of stabbings involving young victims, and these predominantly occur close to home and school.

Speaking at the London Grid For Learning conference, Mr Pinkney said, in his 15 years of youth work, he had noticed a link between children who are excluded from school and those who go on to commit violence.

Last week, six police and crime commissioners wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May warning that a “broken” school exclusion system is linked to a surge in knife crime.