BBC, Young Offenders, Class Charts

I am back from Australia, where as you can see, I connected with my inner child. It has been a very busy week back, with three BBC appearances, two on BBC One and one on Radio Oxford. Details below. I was invited in to the studio to discuss school exclusion in the context of offending. Live TV is tricky! I did not know what I would be asked and things move fast! You can watch it on iPlayer or YouTube here: https://youtu.be/OQFbgJKayU8?si=FyVsDttZD3tBNFMr

It was such a great experience to go on live on tv and once again I was struck by how people backstage resonated with the things I was saying, including a man who had got into trouble at school after the death of his father and a woman who’s son had to wear a beanbag on his lap, so when he ‘fidgeted’ or stood up out of his chair, it would hit the ground and he would lose behaviour points. More on this policies very soon, as I am investigating discriminatory behaviour policies which disproportionately affect neurodiverse children. If you have these experiences, please get in touch as I think the BBC should cover this. Likewise, if you have a view on ‘Class Charts’ please get in touch too.

I met these two detectives who also appeared on Crimewatch and I just wanted to share how their commitment to their work touched and inspired me. They are working all hours to solve the murder of a 39 year old Pakistani man who was highly acclaimed in his community. You can tell, they really have their heart and soul in this. In a world where foreign nationals are often vilified, particularly in criminal justice, it was heart warming to hear about how much they care backstage. I think DC Ed Davy is definitely one to watch, here is to hoping he one day becomes chief of police!

I was invited on to BBC Breakfast to discuss a new report which shows that young offenders are being locked up for 23.5 hours a day and provided with inadequate education provision. I believe this closely mirrors experience at both school/alternative provision and prison. I want to know how the 100k a year for each young person is being spent as it seems to me there is no excuse for the findings of the report. I am writing an article on how the pru to prison pipeline is only going to get worse unless change happens now. All thoughts welcome. You can read the full report here:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/declining-standards-in-young-offender-institutionsand watch the segment here: https://youtu.be/muRmp11X12M?si=ME-jnGMI2vXmdP1E

Some top lines:

Some senior leaders from YOIs and education providers lack ambition for children. Actions from YOI and education leaders to bring about improvements take too long to implement. A culture appears to have settled whereby a ‘requires improvement’ grade at inspection is considered acceptable by senior leaders and does not merit rapid actions for improvement.

January 2019, when only 51% of children said most staff treated them with respect, against the comparator of 70%. Only 34% said they felt cared for by most staff, and nearly half the population said they had no member of staff they could turn to for help

Restrictive regimes mean that staff do not release children from cells to attend work or training. A vicious cycle develops whereby children are isolated, disheartened and frustrated, then develop poor behaviours that lead to further restrictions being imposed.

Inspectors saw one case where children studying on a barista course had no access to a working coffee machine, and one where children on a catering course had to use domestic rather than industrial cookers.
In a mathematics class visited during an inspection at a YOI, children were set a worksheet that required them to use a calculator. However, the teacher had not taught them how to use the calculator to complete the necessary operations. As a result, children struggled and lost interest in the task.

I was then asked to go on BBC Radio Oxford to discuss the report and part of my story. Not sure how this one went, because I really heard the previous callers challenges around having a son with ADHD and I wanted to talk about that in context to Young Offenders rather than focus on my story. These appearances are hard because there is so much I want to share, but so little time and I never know when the last question is..I am learning, slowly! You can listen here from 17:10, let me know what you think: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_oxford

I will be writing more in-depths articles on these issues and putting them out next week, though in the mean time, please reach out to set up a conversation if you have some insight, or simply a book call here with a short message on subject matter: https://calendly.com/tierblundell/30min I do have ADHD (in case you did not know, lol) and organisation is not my strong suit. So I may have thought I have got back to you when I have in fact have not. I can only apologise, I do not wilfully ignore anyone! I have also had lots of problems with people not getting my replies or them going to spam and people not checking. Keep nudging me!

Watch for a message later on the Facebook groups, hoping to still go ahead with the focus groups and arrange individual calls for those that cannot make it so your views can still be heard.

Finally I could use your help!

I have been having great success giving Keynote Speeches at conferences and training workshops on Behaviour Management for the Excluded Child and EDI for the Excluded Child. I also visit schools, chat with pupils and staff and help with both academic and lived-experience perspectives on policy. This is the only thing funding me at the moment and I have no bookings for November. If you are part of a school, local authority, multi academy trust, organisation etc or know people in these areas, I would really appreciate it if you could recommend me and set up a chat to see where I can help. I have positive feedback I can share with you, some of which I will post below. You can direct people to this website or my personal one: www.tierblundell.com

There is also another way to support me through https://buymeacoffee.com/tierblundell thanks to the generosity of you guys I currently have £125 which I am very grateful for! My aim is to leave it in there until I get £250 at which time I will buy a new computer to run the charity on as my laptop is old and quite sketchy at times, I lagged out on the radio for a few seconds and I need something with an ethernet port to avoid future embarrassments!

I look forward to hearing from you all and continuing our conversations!Have a great and sunny weekend!

Tier

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