Agenda item

The Committee considered a report providing an update on the level of exclusions from Bromley schools, as well as the steps being taken to help schools reduce the use of permanent exclusions as a sanction and the destinations for children who have been excluded from school.

Having decreased significantly since 2011, the use of both fixed-term and permanent exclusion had begun to increase in recent years, with the performance of Bromley schools comparing unfavourably with the average performance of schools in London and England since the 2015/16 academic year.  During the 2016/17 academic year, 17 children had been excluded permanently from Bromley primary schools; however in the 2017/18 academic year to date, just one child had been excluded permanently.  The use of fixed-term exclusion in secondary schools was low compared with London and the national average; however the number of permanent exclusions from Bromley secondary schools had been high in recent years, with 68 children excluded permanently during the 2016/17 academic year.  This had subsequently reduced and levels were now comparable with the London and national average with 22 children excluded permanently from Bromley secondary schools during the 2017/18 academic year to date.  The majority of children excluded permanently from school continued their education in a Pupil Referral Unit with the aim of being reintegrated into a mainstream school after a programme of intervention; however this was often not appropriate for Key Stage 4 pupils who might benefit more from accessing a vocational programme.  There were 238 children in Bromley whose parents had elected to teach them at home, which was broadly in line with other local authorities.

A range of measures were in place to prevent the use of permanent exclusion.  This included the Inclusion Support Advisory Team, which provided support to children with special educational needs, the Primary Outreach Service, which offered a structured programme for children designed to meet agreed goals and change behaviour, and Alternative Provision, which was typically offered to Key Stage 4 pupils who had disengaged from education for some time.  Representatives from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services were working with the Local Authority and Bromley schools to develop universal and targeted programmes of mental health support to build skills for schools and resilience for children to support them in maintaining their education. 

In considering the report, the Vice-Chairman noted that the Local Authority had provided funding to establish and deliver the Primary Outreach Service for a period of two years with the expectation that the service would then be funded directly by primary schools.  It was important to ensure that this expectation was made clear to primary schools and that the benefits of continuing the service were communicated.  The Interim Director: Education reported that the Primary Outreach Service worked closely with early intervention services and the Bromley Children Project in forming part of the offer that provided support to vulnerable children and their families.

A Member queried the statutory guidance regarding groups vulnerable to exclusion, and the Interim Director: Education confirmed that this related to the responsibilities of schools in ensuring they identified, recognised and responded to a pupil’s individual needs before taking the decision to exclude the pupil, in essence, ensuring that children were not excluded because their school had failed to meet their needs.

In response to a question from the Chairman, the Head of Service: Access and Inclusion confirmed that in cases of elective home education where there had been persistent non-attendance at scheduled meetings and a referral had been made to Children’s Social Care, any concern of risk of harm to the child was followed up and would be escalated where appropriate.  Information relating to the number of cases that had been escalated would be provided to the Select Committee following the meeting.  The Chairman suggested that work be undertaken to identify good practice around exclusion, such as the use of managed moves and requested that further information on the number of pupils who had been permanently excluded following a period of temporary exclusion be provided to the Select Committee following the meeting.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.