I was delivering some training a while ago when an attendee said something that put me on the back foot. The session was about how schools can support pupils in the youth justice system, otherwise known as young offenders. As we delved deeper into the subject and I explored the acute vulnerabilities of these children, a hand was raised, accompanied by a quizzical expression and the observation: “You seem to view these young people as victims.”

I was as puzzled as he was. It had never occurred to me that this was anything other than a given fact. As the virtual school head for children in care in Wolverhampton, I am acutely aware of the vulnerabilities of this cohort. Nationally, in 2016, looked-after children were five times more likely to be sanctioned for an offence than children in the general population.

Despite the fact that less than 1 per cent of all children in England are in care, they make up about two-fifths of children in secure training centres (38 per cent) and young offender institutions (42 per cent).

We know that these vulnerabilities put many children in care at an increased risk of criminal exploitation.

Young offenders are perhaps not as popular as some other vulnerable groups. In a culture that continually seeks to assign fault and blame, this group doesn’t tend to be afforded the same levels of empathy as their peers. However, young offenders are vulnerable, and can indeed be considered victims as much as perpetrators.

How far might a change in attitude be part of the solution here? I have been involved in a project that did view young offenders in this way - and it worked like this.

From 2016-17, as my role gradually expanded to include vulnerable learners more generally, I started working more closely with the youth offending team (YOT). I discovered that, in 2015, only about half of young offenders in the city had attended school regularly. Despite its strengths in other areas, educational engagement was a problem for the YOT.

Alternatives to exclusion

If we were to prevent more children from reoffending, and to protect them from negative influences, we had to get them into school. This inevitably meant helping schools to find alternatives to exclusion: they had to be supported in properly assessing need and risk, intervening early and delivering targeted interventions where they were most needed.

We all recognised that, for this to happen, education providers needed to be working closely with other key agencies, such as the police, YOTs, special educational needs and disability (SEND) services and preventative services, as well as parents and carers. So, we put a plan in place.

The YOT has placed education front and centre in its work with children and families since 2016, as well as being proactive in reaching out to schools. A dedicated YOT education officer has forged strong links with Sendcos and safeguarding leads in secondary schools across the area.

An educational psychologist now provides specialised input and my role has been expanded to include strategic support. We hold a multi-agency panel every month, reviewing the cases of all young people who are not fully engaged with education and creating a tight, joined-up plan for instances in which school engagement is slipping.

Close collaboration is key. We hold ourselves, and each other, to account for the actions that we agree in those multidisciplinary meetings, as well as providing mutual support.

We work to increase schools’ understanding of the barriers that some of their most vulnerable pupils face. We explore the dual status that many young offenders hold - as both victims and perpetrators - in training with school governors as well as staff.

Skills-based programmes are regularly delivered to children and parents, helping them to develop in areas such as problem solving, emotion regulation and conflict resolution - through, for example, restorative practice. And these are actively promoted in schools at every opportunity.

We recommend that the role of designated teacher for looked-after and previously looked-after children (statutory for all schools in the country) is extended to include those in the youth justice system, in recognition of the vulnerabilities of both cohorts.

In addition, in Wolverhampton, the YOT has conducted a detailed audit of staff awareness of the SEND framework. This has provided a valuable baseline from which to improve knowledge and practice throughout the service.

All young people are now screened for speech, language and communication needs, among other difficulties, and the results inform their intervention plans.

Investment in CPD about attachment awareness and trauma-informed practice is helping the team to promote restorative and relational approaches to challenging behaviour in schools.

The impact of all this work has been noteworthy. In March 2015, 53 per cent of Wolverhampton’s school-age offenders were attending education full-time (the national figure was 45 per cent). By 2017-18, that proportion had risen to 73 per cent, and 2018-19 saw a further 3 per cent increase. Having been very high in recent years, school exclusions are starting to show signs of decreasing; not one Wolverhampton child in care was permanently excluded from school in 2018-19.

Collaboration, not isolation

Anecdotally, we can see schools and children’s services working more closely together, and more roles being created (by schools as well as the local authority) that focus on assessing and supporting the needs of vulnerable learners in a holistic way. This work has highlighted that the needs of the most vulnerable children can be understood only through a range of perspectives and require a collaborative approach. Schools are key partners, but they should not be working in isolation.

This is not about being “soft” on crime; I understand the need for consequences, and for headteachers to send a clear message to other students and parents.

But there is also a need for listening to young offenders, trying to understand the reasons behind their behaviour and recognising their vulnerability as children, and as victims as much as perpetrators.

Darren Martindale is virtual school head for looked-after children at City of Wolverhampton Council

This article originally appeared in the 20/27 December 2019 issue under the headline “How schools can break the youth offending cycle”