A former children’s commissioner has called for all schools to be opened outside of teaching hours as shelter for vulnerable children.
Anne Longfield’s report Hidden in Plain Sight, conducted by her Commission on Young Lives, proposes that school buildings should be used before and after school, as well as during weekends and holidays, to provide “safe and appealing places for teenagers”.
The final report from her year-long commission claims that social care, education, family support and children’s mental health systems are failing thousands of vulnerable teenagers and putting some teenagers at risk of grooming, exploitation and serious violence.
As in a previous report from the commission earlier this year, it also calls for a raft of alterations to the current education system.
These include the end of what the report describes as a “culture of exclusion” in schools, and the creation of new “inclusion measure” to inform Ofsted judgements, and the scrapping of pupil referral units.
And it proposes extending free school meals to all children from families receiving universal credit, re-establishing a Child Poverty Unit and a one-off £1 billion mental health recovery programme, financed in part by a levy on social media companies and mobile phone providers.
In a nod to former New Labour policies, the commission also recommends a reimagined teenager-first “Sure Start” scheme with a “universal” offering to coordinate and deliver health and education support. The scheme would run through Sure Start Hubs to ensure local delivery is met, and the report sets out the target of establishing 1,000 by 2027.
‘Crisis in teenage harm and violence’
These hubs would be funded by money from dormant bank accounts and National Lottery community funding.
The report also calls for the Department for Education to be returned to the Department for Children, Schools and Families, with additional responsibilities for protecting vulnerable children and tackling serious violence and exploitation.
This “crisis of teenage harm and violence” should be viewed as a national priority by prime minister Rishi Sunak, the report contends. Monthly “COBRA-style meetings” should monitor the progress of the social care measures overseen by the redesigned government department.
The department would also be responsible for integrating a new “family-first” approach in government and local agencies, of which the Sure Start hubs would be a key focus.
“[This crisis] is a national threat to our country’s prosperity and security, a threat which is ruining lives and scarring communities, costing the NHS, schools, the police and criminal justice system, and the children’s social care system, billions of pounds every year,” Ms Longfield said.
“This final report is our call to action. Over the last decade, we have frequently taken our eye off the ball for young people, particularly the most vulnerable, and it shows in the crises that so many are now facing.”
The research comes days after the latest government figures show that school referrals to child social services have increased by 50 per cent since 2014.
Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said the report’s findings are “no shock to anyone” involved in the provision for young people over the past decade and highlight the need for support for teachers and schools in tackling the issues.
“For too long education has been treated as the fourth emergency service, with an unfair burden placed on teachers to help pupils with complex issues that require specialist intervention,” she said.
“As the report recognises, this requires a joined-up, inclusive approach with significant investment targeted towards the most vulnerable in society.”
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Twelve years of Conservative neglect has eroded the systems that keep children safe and that put young people on the path to fulfilling futures, blighting lives and costing taxpayers in the process.”
“This is yet more evidence that the Conservatives are failing our children and younger people.”
