Violent crime is being fuelled by schools that are increasingly using expulsions to protect their league table status, the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands has said.

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David Jamieson pointed to figures showing the number of children expelled between 2009-10 and 2016-17 had risen from 440 to 727 in the West Midlands, a region that has experienced the biggest increase in knife crime outside London.

The former teacher said he was particularly concerned about the practice of “off-rolling”, where headteachers excluded a pupil with poor predicted grades before they sit their exams to get them off their books and to protect the school’s position in the league tables.

In many cases, he said that these children were then at risk of being caught up in knife crime. Analysis by the Guardian last week showed that the fatal stabbing in Coventry on 24 November of 16-year-old Jaydon Washington James brought the number of teenagers and younger children killed by knives in the West Midlands police force area to six this year, more per capita than in London and a 40-year high.

Studies have shown that excluded pupils are more likely to commit crime than students who remain in mainstream education.

The Department for Education is conducting a review into school exclusions, led by the former Conservative MP and children’s minister Edward Timpson, who is expected to report by the end of the year. The government said the review would “explore how headteachers use exclusion in practice, and why some groups of pupils are more likely to be excluded”, but that it would not examine exclusion powers.

Jamieson called for fines for schools found to be off-rolling to discourage them from the practice, and for improved provision for excluded children.

“As a former teacher I understand how disruptive some pupils can be. However, excluding children in the numbers we are, without adequate alternative provision for them, is now fuelling violent crime,” he said.

“There are growing numbers of excluded young people who have little to no educational provision and we are seeing those children end up in gangs and committing crimes as a result.”

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Gun crime in Jamieson’s West Midlands policing area has increased by almost 50% since 2012 while knife crime has risen by 75%.

Department for Education figures show that children in the West Midlands are twice as likely to be excluded from school – 12 in every 10,000 – as children in the south-east of England – six in every 10,000. Across England the number of annual exclusions has risen from 5,740 to 7,720 since 2010.

A Guardian investigation earlier this year revealed that dozens of secondary schools had suspended at least one in five of their pupils. Of those 45 schools handing at least 20% of their pupils one or more fixed-period exclusion in 2016-17, the overwhelming proportion were academies.

A DfE spokesperson said: “We want every child to receive an education that fosters ambition and builds confidence in their abilities so they can have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Permanently excluding a child from mainstream school should only ever be a last resort, and we support teachers in making these difficult decisions where they are justified.

“While we know that there has been an increase in exclusions, there are still fewer than 10 years ago. We have launched an externally led review to look at how exclusions are used, why certain groups are disproportionally affected, and why there are variations between regions.

“Although it is not clear what role exclusions play in crime, it is vital that young people who are excluded from school still engage with high-quality education. That’s why we are transforming alternative provision to improve outcomes for these children, which helps them to flourish, backed by our £4m innovation fund that has created nine new projects around the country.”