AYJ members meet with MPs from the Education Select Committee

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The AYJ recently held a roundtable meeting with our members and MPs from the Education Select Committee to inform the next stages of their inquiry into Prison Education.

This was an opportunity for members to help shape the priorities of the committee’s inquiry relating to children and young people, share views about current education arrangements for children in custody, as well as broader issues around education including the 'school to prison pipeline', the links with school exclusions, and the quality of alternative provision.

Charlie Taylor’s review of the youth justice system in 2016 identified a clear failure of the education system to support children at risk of criminal justice involvement and stated that improving education should be a central focus of the response to children in the youth justice system. The review made recommendations around improving work between youth justice and education services, and for the creation of Secure Schools. The Committee was interested in hearing views on any progress made to education and training provision since the Taylor review.

The first section of the discussion focused on mainstream education and how it can better support children at risk of entering the youth justice system, and avoiding the school to prison pipeline. Our members emphasised the need for a culture shift in both primary and secondary schools which moves away from traditional educational methods to ones that are more flexible and hold the ability to engage all students and most importantly, to avoid exclusions. There was also significance placed on the need for teachers to be better equipped to appropriately deal with anger, trauma, conflict, and to notice signs the early warning signs of exploitation.

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The second section of the discussion focused on the education provided in the secure estate. Our members reinforced the need to recognise that the secure estate is not a normal place to learn and therefore the educational methods must be different from that of mainstream educational settings, meaning that in the initial stages there should be less focus on qualifications or ‘random certificates’ and more so on education which engages and inspires. There was also a focus on the need for resettlement plans to be a priority and the concern that many children did not know where they were to sleep upon release, let alone where they were to attend education or training.

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Look out for further updates about AYJ’s engagement with the Committee and other work on our Latest News page.

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AYJ Director presents evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on implications of the Police, Crime, Sentencing, & Courts Bill