Meeting of the Parliament 06 March 2024 [Draft]
I am grateful for that intervention and I could not agree more. A lot of evidence about that is coming out in the Education, Children and Young People Committee’s inquiry into additional support needs provision in our schools, and all members should look forward to that report.
However, it would be wrong to pretend that we can tackle the issue of violence in schools without tackling the wider challenges that many children face. Stronger punishments might be appropriate, especially in circumstances where the safety of other pupils and staff is a major concern, but they are not the whole solution.
Far too often in the debate about the issue, children and young people are being talked about rather than being given the opportunity to discuss their experiences and their ideas for solutions. Although there is much in Liam Kerr’s motion that I agree with, I am glad that the Government amendment calls on us all to work with young people.
One area in which I am glad that we are making progress—and that will have a positive knock-on effect—is in the provision of mental health support services in schools. We are by no means at a point where every child has equal access to those services, but the past three six-monthly reports have shown an increase of 10,000, 12,000 and 14,500 children and young people accessing those expanded services. However, we all need to look at relative levels of access. Although access has expanded nationally, it has not expanded evenly. That is an issue for Parliament, not just for local authorities.
There is not a simple solution to violence in schools, and we would do staff and pupils a disservice to pretend otherwise. However, constructive suggestions have been made over recent months, and I hope that this afternoon’s relative consensus can last long enough for us to see those suggestions delivered and to make our schools a safer environment for every student and member of staff.
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