Teachers and nurses hit out at Home Office knife crime plans

Teaching and nursing unions have criticised Home Office plans to make their members responsible for reporting concerns that young people may be involved in knife crime.

The teaching union said that schools have had to cut councillors and pastoral support at the same time as youth services and police funding have been cut.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he would hold a consultation on whether and how to introduce a “public health duty” for teachers, medical staff and police officers to report concerns.

He said this would mean multiple agencies are “focussed on and accountable for preventing and tackling serious violence”.

The general secretary of the National Education Union, Mary Bousted, said:

“Neither the blame for or the solution to violent crime can be laid at the door of schools or front-line hospital staff. Schools already have strong safeguarding practices in place and staff will be altered to any issues of concern.

“The problem is what happens after issues of concern have been identified. Schools have lost pastoral support, special needs teachers and school councillors.”

“Too many families and communities have suffered the devastating consequences of violent crime. It needs real solutions put in place to prevent yet more incidents occurring – solutions that address the causes and not just the symptoms.

“The Home Secretary should accept the impact the decimation of youth services has had, leaving very few safe places for children to go outside of school hours or during the holidays.”

Local authority youth services funding has decreased by about a third since 2014/2015 – as local authorities budgets have been cut by central government. Boustred continued:

“The severe cutbacks to support services to deal with behaviour issues that occur in and outside of schools are also a major issue. Schools sometimes, but always reluctantly, have to exclude pupils.

However, the illegal off-rolling of pupils who too often drop through the system with no adequate safety net to catch them cannot be justified. To stop this happening schools need the resources, support and funding to cope with pupils with additional needs and we need an accountability system that does not penalise schools who are working with children with complex needs.”

The Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield also said schools “don’t often feel that they’ve got the tools or the systems” to know what to do with children who might be involved in, or at risk of, violent crime.

The Royal College of Nursing also criticised the plans, saying they could put people off from seeking medical help for their injuries.

The consultation will run until May 28 – and the government is inviting submissions from the public, especially those with relevant experience.

Joe Lo is a freelance journalist and a reporter for Left Foot Forward