School exclusions play a part in rising levels of knife crime in the capital, according to London’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, Sophie Linden.

Ms Linden made her comments as she launched a schools toolkit to deter young people from carrying a knife as part of the London mayor’s knife crime strategy. 

Last weekend, 15-year-old Jordan Douherty became the fourteenth teenager to be murdered in London this year after he was attacked and stabbed after a birthday party at a community centre in North Romford.

Ms Linden said rising knife crime was due to a “number of things going on”, including the growing number of young people running drugs out of the capital, social media and youngsters who are picking up and carrying a knife in the mistaken belief that doing so will keep them safe.

School exclusion rates are also an issue and a  “common theme” often raised, she explained. 

“What we have got to understand is exactly what happens when young people are excluded and what education they are given outside of school, and we’ve also got to support schools and support young people to keep those young people in school.”

She added: “We are absolutely saying you’ve got to bear down and really understand what’s happening with exclusions, why it’s happening, how you can support young people - and schools - to not exclude, and if it really is the end of the road, what happens to them afterwards.”

Vulnerable children ‘neglected’

The Labour deputy mayor’s comments echo those of Robert Halfon, the Conservative chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, who recently linked the rising number of exclusions to knife crime amid Ofsted figures that show thousands of pupils disappear from the system after being excluded from school.  

Mr Halfon was reported in the Times as saying: “For years the most vulnerable children have been neglected when they should be the number one priority. We are paying the price through knife crime for the failure to deal with this.”

Ms Linden said schools have a “vital part” to play in helping youngsters to resist some of the influences around violence and getting involved in gangs.

City Hall has launched a toolkit for schools, colleges and community groups as part of the mayor’s “London needs you alive” campaign. It pulls together a range of resources for teachers to use, and the contents aim to encourage young people to value themselves as a deterrent to them picking up or carrying a knife.

The “practical tools” can be used in PSHE or as part of the broader curriculum, said Ms Linden. “We think that schools are a vital part of this but not the only part. It’s also working  together with families and communities and the police.”

Other strands of the London mayor’s knife crime strategy include the availability of knife-detecting wands for schools - an offer taken up by 200 schools so far - and increasing the number of schools officers across the capital to engage with pupils and drive down crime in schools. Currently there are 300 working with schools across the capital. 

Ms Linden will host a day-long event with London boroughs today to follow-up on local knife crime action plans. Ofsted is also looking at knife crime and safeguarding in London schools and is expected to report in early September.