Hundreds of extremely vulnerable children at risk of being recruited by criminal gangs are being thrown out of schools in county lines hotspots.
Figures obtained by BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme revealed there were more than 1,200 exclusions and suspensions of children assessed by social services to be grooming targets in England’s four largest drug-exporting regions between 2021 and 2023.
Exclusion is widely regarded by child protection experts as a trigger point for criminal exploitation as pupils removed from classrooms lose the structure of the school day and the oversight of teachers. Some are left unsupervised at home and others are sent to pupil referral units, where gangs often recruit.
The data – which came from 37 councils in London, West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Merseyside – showed rising numbers of children at risk of criminal exploitation are being pushed out of mainstream schools. At least 600 vulnerable children were removed from classrooms either temporarily or permanently in 2022-23, up from 512 in 2021-22, across the 31 areas that provided figures for both years.
The former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield said the figures were deeply alarming. “These are the children who’ve already been identified and assessed as being very, very vulnerable,” she said. “We absolutely should use the knowledge that those children are vulnerable to make sure they get that ring of protection they need and that means they need to stay in school.”
Children with special education needs are five times more likely to be excluded in England. Will (not his real name), a 13-year-old boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was deemed to be at risk of criminal exploitation by social services last year but was left without a permanent school place for well over a year after 15 suspensions for disruptive behaviour. He told the programme, which will air on Tuesday evening, that he did not get the support he needed.
ADHD can make it hard to focus, sit still or follow instructions. “I’m very much one of those students that deal with things in a different way. If they were just to listen or talk it out, I think it would be better,” Will said.
Ofsted inspectors recently found that the school he attended did not look at the underlying causes of misbehaviour. They also noted that permanent exclusions and suspensions were extremely high.
Will, who is being assessed for autism, was threatened with a permanent exclusion, so his mum, Jess (not her real name), felt she had to take him out of school. “Once you are excluded and it’s put on your record, [it’s harder to] get back into another school and I didn’t want that for him,” Jess said.
While he was outside the education system, Will was targeted by a gang. “They wanted me to go to a bando [a drug house] and sell for them,” he said. “It’s never near you. It’s always like Manchester, Tottenham, London, all of that. You go there for a few weeks, maybe have a couple of people with you. And you sell all types of drugs to all types of people that come around. As long as you’re getting the money, it’s fine. But if you lose something, you’ve got a big problem. You could have people on to you for debt or could have people wanting to kill you and all that.”
This comes as schools struggle to cope with a wave of post-pandemic mental health and behaviour problems, without the vital support services lost during a decade of austerity cuts. Many youth clubs and children’s centres remain closed. Early intervention and family support services have been pared back.
Pupil referral units have warned this year that they are full because so many children are leaving mainstream education. Official figures, which lag a year behind, showed suspensions hitting new highs and exclusions heading back toward the levels seen before Covid struck and schools closed for most pupils.
Longfield called for more support to be provided to vulnerable pupils struggling to behave in classrooms. “We exclude too many children in England, and much of this comes down to the will to support children in our education [system],” she said.
A Department for Education spokesperson said permanent exclusions should always be a last resort and should not mean exclusion from education. “To support schools to do this, we have issued updated guidance on suspensions and permanent exclusions and are clear that initial intervention should be put in place where children are at risk of being permanently excluded and entering alternative provision,” they said.
