Schools should ‘stay open out of hours’ to protect kids at risk of knife crime
SCHOOLS should stay open in evenings and at weekends to provide a safe haven for kids at risk of knife crime, the Children’s Commissioner has said.
Anne Longfield told MPs it was time to declare “emergency measures” in areas blighted by serious knife crime.
She said one way to keep teenagers safe would be to let them go into classrooms out of school hours rather than them being on the street.
Ms Longfield told the Education Committee yesterday: “I think we should almost be in emergency measures in the areas of high violence.
“I would like to see schools staying open in the evening and opening at weekends.”
Youth workers should go into schools to talk to children at risk, she said, and family workers should talk to their siblings.
She revealed that within weeks her office will publish the number of vulnerable children in each area of England.
And she will also name and shame schools blamed for “off-rolling” pupils – illegally taking them off their books, which has been blamed for putting them at risk of being drawn into gangs.
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Anne Longfield told the parliamentary education committee that knife crime was a “massive concern” for her office, and warned of “a really vulnerable group of kids who are falling through the gaps and becoming marginalised”.
She also admitted there were problems with “fragmentation” of local services - such as youth workers, and between government departments - and said a joined-up approach should be a “top priority” for Downing Street and the Cabinet Office.
Schools are under increasing pressure to help tackle youth violence following a rise in the number of knife offences in England and Wales over the last five years.
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THE Children’s Commissioner said parents should not be able to take their kids out of lessons about LGBT relationships.
Anne Longfield gave her backing to teachers at Anderton Park Primary School, in Birmingham, where parents have been staging protests for 12 weeks.
She told MPs there had not been enough focus on the rights of children.
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