Plans to makeJeducation or training compulsory until the age of 18 could mean that thousands of teenagers who refuse will be needlessly criminalised.
Professor Rod Morgan, former chair of the Youth Justice Board,Jmade the warning atJa London conference, which also heard that 30 per cent of 15 to 19-year-olds in the UK were not in education. This is the third highest percentage in the 27 OECD countries, behind only Turkey and Mexico.