School until 18 is causing crime, says police chief

Chief constable suggests lifting compulsory leaving age is partly to blame for surge in violence

‘They are much closer to adulthood but they’re not socialising with many older people and growing up’

KEEPING pupils in full-time education until they are 18 is contributing to rising crime, a police chief has claimed, as he calls for a review of the policy.

Dave Thompson, the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, said he questioned whether ministers had fully examined the ramifications of raising the school leaving age and whether there was a link with the recent explosion in violent crime. He urged Ofsted, the schools watchdog, to investigate sixth form colleges that run low-quality courses with very little lesson time and so fail to keep young people off the streets.

Under laws passed under the Labour government in 2008, it became compulsory for young people to remain in education or training until the age of 18, or alternatively undertake an apprenticeship.

The new regulations, which came into force in 2015, were the first change to school leaving age since 1972.

There has been a surge in violent crime in recent years, with the number of homicides among 16 to 24-year-olds rising by 75 per cent from 87 in 2015, to 152 in 2018. Meanwhile, arrests for possession of weapon offences have risen by 28 per cent since 2015 for the age categories 10-17 and 18-20, according to Home Office data.

“I think the challenge is that with the extension up to 18, there is a very wide group of young people [who] fall in that category,” Mr Thompson told The Daily

Telegraph.

“Now, some will find themselves in good-quality apprentice-type jobs, which is great, they can do their learning at work.

“But let’s be really honest, the neighbourhoods where the violence happens are most likely to be in deprived areas,” he added.

“Many of those people do not have the qualifications to necessarily be securing some of the better apprenticeships.”

Instead, young people from poor backgrounds often end up taking lowquality qualifications in sixth form colleges, which means they are slower to mature, according to Mr Thompson.

“We’re not seeing young people enter the workplace until they’re 18,” he said.

“As a result, I think particularly with young men, I’m not sure they’re maturing fast enough.

“They are much closer to adulthood but they’re not socialising with many older people and growing up by relationships through work.

“In the old days, people would be in a factory – they’d tend to be working with much older people.”

He added that the explosion in knife crime was partly down to a “maturity issue and an inability to deal with conflicts”.

Mr Thompson also questioned how much time teenagers spend in lessons while at colleges.

“The amount of time they’re actually in face-to-face time in class warrants some examination by bodies like Ofsted, because I actually think the class time is fairly low,” he said.

“They are not accessing money legitimately or quickly. So the appeal of fast money and the drugs market can be there.”

Mr Thompson said that while he did not have “empirical evidence” to show a link between raising the school age and the rise in violent crime, he said it was “certainly a question in my mind”, adding that 2015 – when the new policy came into force – was “not an awfully dissimilar time” to when violence picked up.

Other contributing factors to the rise in knife crime included cuts to youth services, social media and the normalisation of violence in music, he added.