Truancy and Delinquency: Projects in Schools (Hansard, 27 June 1994)

§ The Minister of State, Department for Education (Baroness Blatch)
My Lords, the department is already supporting locally-devised projects to a value of some £14 million in more than 80 local education authorities under the truancy and disaffected pupils programme of the Grants for Education Support and Training Scheme for 1994–95.

§ Baroness Faithfull
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. I agree that £14 million has been provided to deal with truancy on the streets and that some projects have been successful. However, does my noble friend the Minister agree that there is a need for units within schools such as the one introduced in Birmingham by Barnardos and the local authority to deal with such children? I am sure that she is aware that delinquency and truancy are closely allied.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I agree with my noble friend that there is a connection. The projects are many and varied. They may involve appointing additional education welfare officers to investigate non-attendance and to improve home-school liaison; support for action against bullying, which we all know can lead to truancy; the installation of electronic systems; and, in relation to the matter which concerns my noble friend, training for teachers in managing the behaviour of difficult children, the establishment of LEA behavioural support units and improved facilities for home tuition and off-site units for excluded and other pupils.

§ Lord Peston
My Lords, we all agree that if the child is not in school it cannot be taught, and what it learns on the streets is what we do not want it to learn. That is the point that the noble Baroness, Lady Faithfull, made. I do not get a sense of the scale of the problem from the Minister's Answer. Is this an area where voluntary bodies and LEAs can work very well together? I am not clear whether in this context £14 million is a great deal of money or a little money. My recollection of the Elton Report on truancy is that the scale of the problem is so large that that sum would not enable the relevant bodies to get to grips with it. Will the noble Baroness comment on that? Can she also say whether she has received representations from voluntary bodies on this matter?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I am sorry that the noble Lord does not believe that the problem is being tackled properly. First, there are many thousands of 524 schools up and down the land where there is no problem. We are building up a body of evidence from inspection reports as to why some policies work in some schools but not in others. The £14 million is directed mainly at those areas where there is a problem and where the schools do not appear to have solutions. As I said, the solutions are many and varied. We shall be evaluating those solutions to see what works.
The noble Lord will remember that Part III of the Education Act 1993 was devoted to children with special needs, which includes many of the behavioural problems we are discussing. The key is early identification. Schools should develop policies and strategies to nip all these problems in the bud. Where there are problems which are beyond the scope of a school, it should seek the help of outside agencies.

§ Lord Peston
My Lords, the Minister misunderstood me. I did not suggest that enough was not being done. Nor, for a change, was I criticising the Government in this regard. I genuinely asked about the scale of the problem. As I understand it, the problem is still large. I do not suggest that it is easily solved. I simply seek enlightenment on where we go next.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, we do not know the full extent of the problem. Help will be provided by the requirement on all schools to let the outside world know how many young people are out of school, with or without authorisation. We shall then have a full picture of the number of young people who are out of school. I agree with the noble Lord that children out of school are not being educated, and if they are not being educated they are in a spiral of deprivation. We want to do all that we can to ensure that young people are in school and benefiting from being in school.

§ Baroness Seear
My Lords, does the noble Baroness agree that one of the ways in which the problem has been dealt with in the past is through the provision of additional staff in classes who are allocated to children showing behavioural problems? Is that still being done? Is it true, as it is sometimes said, that those additional staff have been withdrawn? If the problem can be cured in the early stages in primary school, does the Minister agree that that is the best way of dealing with it and nipping it in the bud?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, it is difficult to answer the question specifically because staffing policy is now a matter for schools themselves. Some schools manage to staff very well and have policies to which all the staff are signed up and strategies which are applied at the earliest signs of disruption or poor behaviour on the part of children. However, sometimes the situation is so difficult that extra staff are brought in to help. Sometimes the local authority will collaborate with the school if the problem is very serious. Turning to my noble friend's concern, if the problem is beyond the scope of the school to cope with then outside agencies are the answer.

Lord Morris
My Lords, is my noble friend entirely happy with her use of the phrase "disaffected pupils" in 525 that it suggests that the cause of the problem does not lie with pupils or their parents but with the school and the authorities concerned?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I wish it were as simple as that. In some cases a school may be poorly run. It may tolerate a level of behaviour which is unacceptable and to which the children respond. Children respond to a framework of discipline and knowing what is expected of them in school. It is increasingly obvious that where a school has a good framework of discipline, well understood by staff and children, the likelihood of unmanageable behaviour is much less than in a school where such rules do not apply.

§ Lord Monkswell
My Lords, how many local education authorities have put forward projects under the scheme and have not received funding? I believe that the scheme put forward by the Manchester LEA met all the criteria that the ministry required. Will the noble Baroness explain why that scheme did not receive funding?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I cannot be specific. I shall write to the noble Lord giving the exact answer to his question. My understanding is that almost all LEAs which applied with a bid addressing the problem received some funding from the department. I find it almost inconceivable that Manchester received nothing. However, I shall check and write to the noble Lord.

§ Baroness Faithfull
My Lords, I am sorry to press the Minister. The £14 million allocated to non-school attenders is very much a "street" scheme which will get the children back to school temporarily. However, when the Education Act is implemented, will there be resources to set up special units within schools?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I stated that part of the scheme involves taking children off the streets and bringing them back into schools. However, I also mentioned that the projects included both training and improved facilities for home tuition and off-site units. The £14 million is particularly directed at new ideas for tackling a problem which is long overdue for attention. As my noble friend knows, there are such units. Indeed, in my own local authority they work well.