Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to ensure that schools remain responsible for pupils who leave their school roll until they have found a new permanent place.

Pupils leave school rolls for many reasons, including permanent exclusion or changes of circumstances (as when a pupil moves to a new area). All schools must notify the local authority when a pupil’s name is to be deleted from the admission register.

It is the responsibility of the local authority (with the exception of fixed period exclusions) to put in place alternative provision for pupils who for any reason would not otherwise receive a suitable education.

All local authorities are also required to operate a Fair Access Protocol to ensure that outside the normal admissions round unplaced children are offered a school place as soon as possible.

Edward Timpson is leading a review of exclusions, which will consider how schools use exclusion and in particular why some groups of children are more likely to be excluded from school. The review is due to report in due course.