Pupils should be taught to avoid gangs

Anne Longfield, the UK’s children's commissioner, has claimed that personal, social, health and economics education (PSHE) lessons should teach pupils how to avoid being sucked into gangs or exploited by older criminals.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live's Sunday Breakfast programme, Longfield said that large numbers of young people are at risk after finding that 46,000 children in England are involved in gangs.

She warned that shoots need to better address the difference between ‘genuine opportunities’ and ‘exploitative situations’ and believes that the compulsory PSHE lessons should teach ‘life skills lessons’, in which gang involvement and vulnerability becomes a part.

She said: “For younger children it will often be the draw of fast money - sometimes protection for themselves if they're fearful about their own wellbeing - but certainly also a sense of belonging, fast money, sometimes glamour.

"Life skills is something that the government has committed itself to do. Most schools at the moment do provide life skill lessons but they're often inconsistent and often they don't tackle some of these issues that are much harder to tackle."

According to The Times, the Metropolitan Police has written to parents about pupils being approached outside school gates and on social media to act as money mules, whereby criminals are transferring stolen money through children's bank accounts to hide it from the authorities.