OPINION: You can’t expect schools to solve knife crime epidemic

The concept it has proposed of multi-agencies working together is perplexing because this has been the case for many years.

Anybody who works anywhere near a child knows safeguarding is paramount and that information is passed between agencies regarding children.

Referrals are passed to Mash (the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) and subsequently a bigger picture can be built that otherwise might not initially appear following low level concerns.

So, why the alleged need for a new duty? The Home Office refused to answer this which suggests there isn’t a need but that it makes the government appear as though they’re doing something.

The vast array of highly complex issues that lies behind knife crime, many of which link to the community or sub-communities in which children are growing up, is simply too much to be lumped on teachers.

They can continue to educate about knife crime, they can model good citizenship, and they can care for youngsters passing on all safeguarding concerns, but there is so much more to society than schooling.

Given the shocking state of funding for mental health care for kids, let alone meaningful investigation and tackling of knife crime, is it any wonder some are so terrified of being hurt themselves they have taken to carrying a weapon? These are kids who, despite being told repeatedly that carrying a weapon puts you most at risk of being stabbed yourself, continue to do so.

We need to look at the reasons for this, not look for an agency to take responsibility. Instead, we all need to take responsibility. It takes a village to raise a child – not just a school, a parent, or a government.

Our government is an international laughing stock anyway at present so I am inclined to take anything it says with an EU-sized mountain of sodium.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

We’ve got bigger problems at home than Brexit, Mrs May

I truly believe the way forward lies in people uniting in a mutual disillusionment of our government.

Mrs May scurries around Europe begging for extensions while kids die at astonishing rates on the blades of a broken youth.

We’ve got drill music artists spouting nihilistic lyrics to an impressionable generation while teachers and police take the literal rap for the tragedy in this country. Last time I checked, no matter how inspiring the teacher nor dedicated the police, rappers were cooler than PC Plod and Mr Chips.

Forget the Brexit ball Mrs May; get juggling the glass ones that will break if you don’t get your proverbial together.

Forget facts, I just want to recall why I went upstairs…

On a lighter note this week, I never cease to be amazed at how kids’ brains are like little sponges, soaking up all factoids and information thrown their way.

My youngest daughter has developed an interest in both history and sharks (a history of sharks would most likely be her nirvana), and she has taken to reading as many facts as she can, vacuuming up the information like a Dyson on supercharge.

She then proceeds to reel off statistics and figures, examples and tales, at a rate of knots when we sit down to eat in the evening. I am left simply marvelling at her capacity to both take all this in and recall it, while being unable to even remember why I have entered a room.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​