Expelled pupils ‘prey for county lines gangs’

CHILDREN excluded from school are at risk of being drawn into so- called ‘county lines’ drugs gangs and knife crime because a third of councils cannot offer them any alternative education, a children’s charity warns.

Research by Barnardo’s found 47 local authorities in England – or one in three – had no places available in pupil referral units for children excluded from mainstream education.

Where vacancies in units do exist, many are substandard.

Barnardo’s urged ministers to act, claiming the support system for excluded pupils was at ‘breaking point’.

Labour MP Sarah Jones, chairman of the Commons all-party parliamentary group on knife crime, said those children who had ‘literally nowhere’ to go faced being criminalised and drawn into violence.

A separate report for the Home Office warned this month that exclusions ‘appear to be a highly significant trigger point for the escalation of county lines involvement for children’. County lines gangs are named after the mobile numbers used by city criminals to sell, buy and distribute drugs in rural areas, often using children.

Today, the Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield, will give evidence to MPs about the link between school exclusions and youth violence.

She has previously warned that the number of children being drawn into county lines gangs could total as many as 50,000 across the country.

The number of children being kicked out of the classroom has risen by 56 per cent since 2014. There were 7,720 exclusions and temporary suspensions in 2016-17 compared to 4,950 from 2013-14.

Miss Jones said: ‘Exclusions are rising and in many cases there is literally nowhere for those children to go. This is heart-breaking.

‘Schools need resources to support pupils through difficult periods.

‘Too many children are being socially excluded and marked as failures, with tragic consequences.

‘Professionals talk about the “PRU [pupil referral units] to prison pipeline”. The system is failing these young people.’