BBC Radio 4 interview with Vicky Foxcroft MP

Following the publication of the Youth Violence Commission’s interim report, Chair of the Commission Vicky Foxcroft MP has been calling for a number of adjournment debates in Parliament on the report’s recommendations. 

Ahead of her debate on the relationship between school exclusions and youth violence, Vicky spoke to Mark D’Arcy for BBC Radio 4’s Today in Parliament.

“It is not inevitable that pupils who have been excluded will go on to become involved in serious violence and crime”, said Vicky in a recent article for The House Magazine. “However, we cannot ignore the link between school exclusion and social exclusion: once children and young people are permanently excluded, it is very difficult for them to re-enter mainstream education.”

The Youth Violence Commission argues ultimately for an ambition of zero school exclusions, and argues that a reallocation of funding from Pupil Referral Units to mainstream education would be required to achieve this.

This post was written by Reshima Sharma