“Always Someone Else’s Problem”

Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s Report on illegal exclusions

Illegal exclusions is a very serious issue. The consequences of being permanently excluded from school are extremely serious. Unless high-quality support is in place for excluded children, especially where exclusion has been illegal and lacked recourse to any appeal processes, their life chances are likely to be substantially affected in the short and long term. Children who miss out on education as a result of their school acting illegally to remove them are much less likely to receive the support they need to turn themselves round. They may be in a position where no adult is looking after them during the days when they ought, legally, to be at school, and be placed at risk as a result. In the longer term, they are more likely than their peers to ‘disappear’ from education altogether, with profound and enduring results. It is simply unacceptable for this to be allowed to happen, even if it only affects a very small number of children.

It ought to be a source of shame for the whole education system that those who are responsible for the education of children are, however rarely, illegally preventing them from gaining this education. This issue should become a much higher priority for all those involved in our schools, regardless of the number of children involved.

This report, for the first time, provides quantitative evidence from teachers and school leaders about the scale and nature of illegal1 exclusions from schools in England. This practice, as far as it can be measured, appears to affect a small but significant minority of schools, and therefore pupils.

We have found evidence of:

  • pupils being excluded without proper procedures being followed; these exclusions are usually for short periods, but may be frequently repeated, meaning that the child misses substantial amounts of education
  • pupils being placed on extended study leave, on part time timetables, or at inappropriate alternative provision, as a way of removing them from school
  • pupils being coerced into leaving their current school, either to move to another school or to be educated at home, under threat of permanent exclusion
  • schools failing to have due regard to their legal responsibilities regarding the exclusion of children with statements of Special Educational Needs (SEN) or Looked After Children (LAC)
  • schools failing to have due regard to their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010
  • local authorities failing to deliver their legal responsibility to provide full time alternative education for children from the sixth day of exclusion