Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what evaluations of individual PRU referrals are made upon transfer request; and how many such referrals have been denied in the last two years.

Statutory guidance in place for Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) referrals is set out in Alternative Provision (AP) Statutory guidance for local authorities.

This states: “Schools and local authorities, working in consultation with PRU management committees and the governing bodies of alternative provision Academies and AP Free Schools, should set an overall policy for referrals or admission to alternative provision. There should be clear criteria for referring and admitting pupils, including those who are dual registered. Pupils should be dual registered from the beginning of the first day of which the school has commissioned the alternative provision”.

The guidance can be viewed here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/268940/alternative_provision_statutory_guidance_pdf_version.pdf.

The Department does not hold information on individual referrals to alternative provision, including via PRUs, or cases where referrals have been denied. However, a qualitative and quantitative research programme has been launched into AP practices across England, including referrals to AP. The final reports will be published in autumn 2018 and the findings will be used to inform future work strands on AP reform.

One of the routes to AP is through exclusions. The Government has launched an externally led review of exclusions practice, led by Edward Timpson CBE. The review will consider how schools use exclusion and how this impacts on all pupils, but particularly why some groups of children are more likely to be excluded from school. The review will aim to report by the end of the year.