Speech on Second Chance Centres - Tuesday 8th September
Ladies and Gentlemen
May I first of all thank both Gavin Hastings and Douglas Keil for their excellent contributions to this section of the afternoon and also for providing their not inconsiderable expertise in recent months as the party has undertaken some important work in what I believe is a crucial area of policy development. School discipline continues to be an issue that rightly gains the attention of the press, politicians, and parents, and many teachers and the professional bodies which represent them, complain that indiscipline and the inability of staff to do much about it, is one of biggest problems facing our schools today. As a former teacher, I agree with that perspective and I want to make it abundantly clear that we are determined to do something about it.
Now, I say at the outset, that I am very mindful of the fact that there are complex reasons for disruptive behaviour and also that individual pupils can react in different ways to different sanctions. I am particularly conscious of the fact that many voluntary sector bodies in Scotland do a first class job when dealing with difficult pupils and often in difficult circumstances– groups such as Fairbridge, the Prince’s Trust, and the ETEN project in West Dunbartonshire are just some - and there is also the example of Spark of Genius as a very successful private sector programme. And, as Annabel Goldie has said, we must also be bold when it comes to the debate about parenting responsibilities, just as we have been bold about drugs and our broken society.
All of this then, tells us that there has to be some flexibility about how we tackle the discipline issue, but I also believe that it is not an option to allow the complexities of the causes to in any way cloud our judgment about the solutions. We need clarity of vision and zero tolerance when it comes to the persistent troublemakers in our classroom, and by persistent troublemakers I mean the 2000 or so pupils in Scotland who are either permanently expelled from school or who are excluded five times or more for a lengthy period of time. And I believe, both from my own research and from recent opinion polls, that that’s what parents want too. And so they should, because if we make excuses for bad behaviour we are going to end up ruining the futures of far too many pupils in Scotland.
In this equation, we need to understand that the serious level of indiscipline is costing taxpayers in Scotland millions of pounds each year - £5.6 million for the 107,000 school days which are lost each year when the taxpayer is forking out for excluded pupils not at school and who are sent home without anything to do; the £1.4 million which is the cost of emergency services call outs to school violence; and the £2.6 million which is the estimate – probably a fairly conservative estimate - of the cost of the 36,000 school days lost because teachers are off as a result of stress related incidents. That is to name just 3 of the heavy costs to society of bad discipline in schools.
I have spent a long time listening to those on the front line and I have also spent time looking at various pilot schemes which come under the heading of “second chance schools” – not sin-bins as some newspapers seem to prefer - such as those which operate in East Leeds and at Loughshore, Belfast, and similar schools which have been piloted in some states of America and in Scandinavia. And these schools are deliberately termed “second chance schools” because, as both Gavin Hastings and Douglas Keil have said in their presentations, we must recognise that so much of the serious indiscipline in schools is a result of youngsters completely losing any focus in their lives. These youngsters need an opportunity to understand exactly why their behaviour is so unacceptable and the damage that they do, not only to their teachers and the well-behaved majority, but, just as importantly, the damage they do to themselves and their families. They need a second chance to put things right. And in my view, that demands a combination of specialist staff, a great deal of patience and dedication, small group tuition but also a very firm approach that will make it abundantly clear that their bad behaviour will not be tolerated under any circumstances.
So how much does all this cost?– well, to deal with all 2,000 persistent offenders all in one go and roll this policy out right across Scotland would cost somewhere over the £20 million mark and that is not something that is possible within the tight budget constraints of the current economic situation, so it would have to start on a pilot basis in areas where there is the highest total of persistent troublemakers. If we take just the £5.6m +£1.4m +£2.6m which I mentioned to you as just some of the upfront costs of serious indiscipline then we start to get some idea of how that money could be re-channelled into second chance centres that would get to grips with tackling some of the worst offenders. What sticks in my throat, and I’m sure in the throats of taxpayers the length and breadth of the country, is the £5.6million which is shelled out every years on education for these youngsters yet they are either at home doing nothing or out on the streets causing trouble. I am appalled to read Scottish Government statistics which show that in 85% of school exclusions absolutely no effort is made to provide any education during the period of the exclusion. That is not good enough and I think this week’s poll says it all about what parents want when it comes to tackling the issue and so I challenge the SNP when they say that our policy “isn’t necessary”. Just who are they kidding?
But, part of this policy is also about ensuring that we can take control of discipline policy away from politicians and bureaucrats and give it back to teachers. As things stand just now, many local authorities which are experiencing increases in the number of exclusions are attempting to deal with the problem by setting exclusion targets. For me, this beggars belief – on what moral grounds can a local authority decide, at the start of the year, what is an “acceptable” exclusion target? Just think about it for a moment – it is not rocket science to see what is so wrong about this state of affairs.
I find it astonishing that teachers and head-teachers have such limited power over discipline. In too many cases, their hands are effectively tied because they are unable to impose effective sanctions without encountering a lengthy process of referral to those who supposedly have more knowledge than they do. Indeed in some cases, when consultation with local government authorities is thought necessary, not even head-teachers appear to have enough powers to deal with unruly children. This has to change. Classroom teachers and especially the head-teacher have to be given far more control over discipline in their schools.
I know that when indiscipline occurs it should be dealt with firmly, fairly and quickly. There should be no time for the youngster, his or her classmates and the teacher to forget the details of what happened and the reason for punishment. At present, there is often a large burden of paperwork which accompanies the reporting of disciplinary issues, paperwork that often involves a lengthy procedure which means the issue isn’t dealt with until several days, sometimes weeks later by which time the whole process has often become pointless. Teachers must have more control otherwise it will be impossible to gain the trust of their pupils and that’s when the real trouble starts.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Common sense tells us that children are far more content and perform better in well disciplined schools rather than in schools where the discipline is weak. The effects of poor discipline are obvious, as are the results if the matter is not properly dealt with.
Despite most people recognising that good discipline is central to the good management of any school, indiscipline in our schools remains all too common a problem, especially when it comes to the issue of persistent troublemakers. We need a much stronger line than there is at present.
I believe that most teachers and parents believe that it is simply unacceptable for persistently disruptive pupils to be allowed to remain in mainstream classes disrupting the education of a well behaved majority and making life a misery for those who teach them. These pupils should not be permitted to return to mainstream education until they have learnt to behave properly and there has to be an avoidance of situations where “exclusion” means missing school time with nothing constructive put in its place. We need a system where headteachers have more control over discipline policy in their own schools and we need to ensure that there are several options available to them when the going gets tough. Second Chance Centres are a very important part of the answer.