Agenda item

Report of the Head of Legal and Governance

Peter McConnochie, Head of Access to Learning, and Michael Wilsher, Inclusion Officer, presented a report on the pupil exclusion rates for Nottingham schools, the measures in place to seek to reduce exclusions, and the recommendations of the Timpson Review of Exclusions. The following points were discussed:

(a)  the permanent exclusion rate in Nottingham is twice as high as both the regional and national average, while its fixed-term exclusion rates are one-third higher. This position has not changed significantly in recent years. The national data for exclusions is two years behind current and is taken from census returns, while the local ‘live data’ is not always reported consistently by schools. Steps are being taken to address this through updated data sharing agreements and ICT-based links with school systems;

(b)  fixed-term exclusions are used more regularly in Nottingham than in the rest of the local region and across England as a whole. In total, 40% of all pupils who receive a fixed-term exclusion have been excluded multiple times (and this figure does not reflect pupils put on part-time timetabling or who are sent home temporarily with no formal, legally required record of a fixed-term exclusion). The rate of exclusions from secondary schools (at 7.44 pupils in every hundred) is well above the national average (at 4.62 in every hundred). Exclusions from primary schools are marginally above average (at 0.88 per hundred pupils in Nottingham, relative to 0.62 nationally). However, fixed-term exclusions from special schools are below the national average (at a rate of 4.55 in Nottingham, compared to a rate of 5.09, nationally);

(c)  the local data for permanent exclusions is more current. Although the rate of exclusions has been rising nationally, Nottingham is still well above the average, having the 10th highest number of exclusions per 100 pupils of 152 Local Authorities in 2016/17 (with 101 secondary exclusions and 26 primary exclusions). A significant proportion of pupils excluded have either special educational needs and disability (SEND) or are in receipt of free school meals (FSM), or both. A number of exclusions sometimes occur when an academy school moves between trusts, or when a school is in special educational measures;

(d)  the Committee requested that the data was provided to show the breakdown of the gender and ethnicity of the children excluded, and that the number of SEND and FSM pupils excluded was differentiated. It recommended that the demographic data on the pupil population of each school was reviewed as part of the process of understanding the exclusion rates;

(e)  the ‘Inclusion Model’ has been introduced by the Council to encourage schools to not exclude pupils, where possible. Ten of seventeen secondary schools are part of the model and have seen reductions in their exclusion rates, but the highest three excluding schools have not signed up. Meetings are held with the head teachers of all of the schools that are part of the Model, and the other schools are invited to attend. Individual meetings are also held with the heads of schools that are not part of the Model;

(f)  since the start of the 2017/18 academic year, there have been 215 permanent exclusions from Nottingham schools. The majority of the pupils excluded were boys and the most common reason for exclusion was persistently disruptive behaviour. The highest number of exclusions occurred in Year 10, followed by Year 8. To support schools, a scheme designed to address and mitigate disruptive behaviour is being rolled out. Work is also being carried out to improve the capacity of school staff to recognise early indicators that a child may have SEND characteristics, so that support can be offered before a formal SEND statement is put in place;

(g)  the Committee suggested that, in the cases of pupils excluded due to persistent disruptive behaviour, support should also be offered to the parents to help them better manage the behaviour of their child more generally, as this could assist in improving their behaviour at school;

(h)  the Timpson Review was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Education in March 2018 to review school exclusions, to explore how head teachers use exclusion practice and why some groups are disproportionally excluded, alongside examining the practice of off-rolling pupils from schools. The review was published in May 2019 and contains 30 recommendations that focus on expanding school responsibility, increasing the role of the Local Authority as a partner and facilitator of local support forums, the development and oversight of in-school units and Alternative Provision (AP), and tackling off-rolling in partnership with Ofsted;

(i)  some ethnic groups are associated with a lower likelihood of being permanently excluded, including Bangladeshi and Indian children who are around half as likely to be excluded as White British children. Children from other ethnic groups are more likely to experience exclusion, in particular Black Caribbean, Mixed White and Black Caribbean, and pupils from Traveller communities. Key groups disproportionality excluded also includes children with SEND, those receiving support from social care and students in receipt of FSM. The analysis produced for the Review shows that 78% of permanent exclusions were pupils who either had SEND, were classified as in need or were eligible for FSM – 11% of permanent exclusions were to pupils who had all three characteristics;

(j)  the Government has made six key commitments following the Timpson Review: to make schools accountable for the outcomes of permanently excluded children; to establish a practice programme which embeds effective partnership working between schools, Local Authorities, AP and others; to work with sector leaders to rewrite national guidance; to call on all partners to review information on children who leave school and to use the data to understand trends; to work with Ofsted to define and tackle the problem of off-rolling; and to extend support for AP;

(k)  the Education Directorate in Nottingham has begun to review the implication of the recommendations with schools and academies locally. The current school cohorts have been reviewed to identify the children at the greatest statistical risk of exclusion, and the ‘Inclusion Model’ is focusing on the schools in the areas that have the highest populations of children from groups that are disproportionally excluded. 48% of the children most at risk of exclusion have contact with the Priority Families Team already, while 57% have had contact with at least one Council service and one-third have had contact with at least two. There are 449 pupils who have at least five of the eight factors related to a high risk of exclusion, and these pupils may need additional support. Information relating to high-risk pupils has been shared with the schools, which have a duty to identify these pupils and provide appropriate additional support;

(l)  a ‘Fair Access’ panel is in place and termly inclusion meetings are held with head teachers, in addition to monthly inclusion forums. The Education Directorate is being restructured so that it can respond effectively to every exclusion, with weekly exclusion review meetings now in place and reviews undertaken by the Education Improvement Board, and address issues of off-rolling. The cost and outcomes of AP are under review, while joined-up working is in place with social care, to enable early intervention into schools when needed;

(m)any exclusion is at the discretion of a school’s head teacher, and any challenge to a school’s exclusion practices can only be made through Ofsted. However, the Council is able to assist families with children at risk of exclusion, while councillors can support any appeals made by a family against an exclusion and challenge schools on their exclusion rates. Fundamentally, although the Council has no control over whether or not a child is excluded, the Council is responsible for children not in school. The ‘Inclusion Model’ represents a drive to reduce exclusions and a new escalation process will be put in place from September to challenge schools considering the exclusion of a pupil. In light of the Timpson Report, every effort will be made to engage and build positive relationships with schools and central Government to address the findings.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  encourage councillors to engage with any schools in their wards that have high exclusion rates and to help to publicise the negative effects of exclusions;

(2)  support Children’s Services to engage with the consultation to support the recommendations of the Timpson Review, and to seek to re-establish community between school head teachers;

(3)  request further information on the breakdown of demographic and characteristics data on the pupil population of each school; the gender and ethnicity of the children excluded; the number of SEND and FSM pupils excluded, individually; and the statistics for pupils from the Traveller community;

(4)  strongly encourage schools to provide early support to the children most at risk of exclusion following the positive work carried out on understanding risk factors, and for schools to widen their definition of risk factors;

(5)  invite the Priority Families Team to attend a future meeting of the Committee.