Position Paper 2023

Transdisciplinary Research for Youth Justice – Position Paper 2023 18 education without adaptations (Hughes et al., 2016). Charlie’s description of being ‘kicked out of school ’and sent to a ‘behaviour school ’is indicative that any intervention in mainstream school was ineffective, and that mainstream education was inaccessible for Charlie. It is well documented that children who are referred to Pupil Referral Units are at higher risk of contact with the criminal justice system, as well as a myriad of other negative life outcomes (Mowen & Brent, 2016; Department for Education, 2021) and school exclusions are disproportionately used for children with special educational needs (Department for Education, 2021). Some intervention models have been designed to reduce school exclusion and future arrest, but meta-analysis has found the quality of the intervention and implementation is key to ensuring outcomes, and currently interventions are only effective for secondary school aged children (Mielke & Farrington, 2021). These need further development. From an education perspective, Charlie’s needs needed to be formally identified earlier within the school system and a number of opportunities would have presented for intervention, although Charlie’s story as he narrates it represents a time when things would have already gone quite wrong as he does not mention much about school. For example, we already know that school absenteeism and then dropout is often a proxy measure for disengagement in school (Chapman, Laird & Ifill, 2011). Another opportunity is when in a secure custodial setting, Charlie’s educational needs could have been further explored through efforts to engage him (ahmed Shafi, 2018) – more needs to be done to capitalise on this critical opportunity. That Charlie could articulate his story in a sustained way over several pages demonstrates that he could be engaged with education and learning even at this stage. Understanding more about children who disengage from education and learning in a passive or active way (Earl et al, 2017) are key (early) indicators of need though both forms of disengagement require specific strategies (ahmed Shafi, 2019). Research demonstrates that those who engage in education whilst incarcerated are more likely to successfully transition and integrate back into the community because they have another option or another way (Lanskey, 2015). Thus, focusing on transition points are critical