Social Value Papers

Early Intervention

The ‘Institute for Public Policy Research’ claims that over 50% of students expelled from school have been diagnosed with some form of mental illness.

A report from SedEC states that at least 50% of the United Kingdom’s prison population were expelled from school.

The knife crime epidemic reached an all-time high in 2018, with homicides committed by knife being the highest in 50 years

LNK Aspire:

LNK Aspire is a scheme where we guide young people who are a part of or at risk of joining the criminal cycle on to the right path. We targeted Year 11s in two Croydon Pupil Referral Units, ‘Phil Edwards’ and ‘Moving On’, both part of the Saffron Valley Collegiate, from June 2018 to March 2019. There are also some other criteria that some of the people we work with meet.

In order to be eligible to be referred to the Aspire programme, the pupils must meet the following criteria:

  • Be aged 15 or 16 and in year 11 when recruited into the service

  • Considered ‘at risk’ of not being in employment, education, or in training in the future

  • Considered ‘at risk’ of being excluded from their school, or have already been excluded

  • They are already attending a pupil referral unit, or an alternative education school  

  • Have very low attainment levels and are making little educational progress

  • School attendance level of less than 90%

 

These include:

  • At risk of being involved in gang crime

  • Misuse of substances such as cannabis

  • Have been identified as suffering from a mental health issue

  • Having special educational needs, e.g. ADHD, Dyslexia, and OCD

Societal Benefit:

The average cost of sending a male aged 15-17 to a young offenders’ institute is £85,975 per year. By 24 of the 31 members being in employment, education, or training, this significantly reduces the chance of them offending and getting sent to prison in the future It is also estimated that the cost to society of a person not being in employment, education, or training is £120,000 for their lifetime, through costs such as benefits and lost income tax. This means that our 2018/19 programme will potentially save the government £2 million per year through less young offenders, as well as an additional £2.9 million overall by keeping them in employment, education, or training.

Teacher Resource Pack:

When Lives not Knives was created it was done with the goal of positively impacting and changing the lives of young people at risk of youth violence. But we are working against the backdrop of an increasingly fragmented set up. The education system is complex with a mix of free schools, maintained schools, academies and PRU’s. Agencies and government bodies want to do more to protect children but, due to conflicting or competing priorities, are not always able to do so. What we are seeing is that children need everyone in society to work together to put them first and protect them. What we are hearing is that this is not always the case. Our resources are finite and our funding limited, which impacts the number of children that we are able to reach, so to address this, last year we introduced the Teachers Resource Pack.

The Teachers Resource Pack is essentially a toolkit we have created to support and assist education staff in their work with children, young people and families. It provides information, advice and links to resources specific to knife crime, including lesson plans for KS2. While the material addresses matters like the consequences of carrying a knife – it also aims to offer inspiration to children to pursue positive alternatives, using real life stories of young people’s experiences as a basis.

Our pack includes 5 films featuring clips from the following people:

  • Dunia Shafik – Her son stabbed and killed someone in a revenge attack

  • Sophie Sterling – Her brother was stabbed to death

  • Junior Barrister

  • Police Officer

  • Trauma Surgeon

Dunia and Sophie have 2 hard-hitting stories, where they explain how their lives have been impacted so negatively by knife crime. After each of these 2 videos are watched, the teacher will host a class discussion asking for opinions on the stories, asking questions such as what they would have done if they were in the position of the offenders.

The other 3 films are mainly to do with improving knowledge levels of the pupils. The junior barrister and the police officer go over information such as the legal consequences of carrying a knife and how your future is affected, for example going to prison and not being able to apply for certain jobs in the future due to your criminal record. The trauma surgeon goes over the severity of stabbing someone and how it can have severe long-term psychological effects for the victim as well as the obvious physical effects.

So far, we have delivered this pack to 83 teachers and youth workers, who have been able to deliver lessons and reach out to approximately 5000 young people. These lessons have been met with great success, with teachers and youth workers giving us very positive feedback about how the materials have helped challenge inaccurate perceptions about knife crime, helped young people develop the confidence to resist pressure to carry knives, and helped them to inspire young people to recognise positive role models. In the coming year we are looking forward to working with more schools going forward to deliver these materials. In the long-term we would like this to become safely and effectively integrated into the school curriculum - possibly within the PSHE education provision where we think it could make sense.

If you would like to read more of our most recent Social Value Paper please click on the link below. 

Social Value Paper 2018-2019 >