Pupil Exclusions

(asked on 7th May 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Statement of 7 May 2019 on the Timpson review of school exclusions, if it is his policy to make schools accountable for pupils who leave their rolls only through permanent exclusions.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 13th May 2019

As noted in the Government response to Edward Timpson’s review of school exclusion, the Government will make schools accountable for the outcomes of permanently excluded children. Over the summer, the Department will work with education leaders to design a consultation, to be launched in the autumn, on how to deliver these reforms in practice. Among other things, the Department will seek views on how to mitigate the potential unintended consequences Edward Timpson has identified in his review, including how to tackle the practice of ‘off-rolling’.

Ofsted already considers records of children taken off roll and has recently consulted on proposals that will see a strengthened focus on this issue, and has proposed that where inspectors find off-rolling, this will always be addressed in the inspection report, and where appropriate will lead to a school’s leadership being judged inadequate. Ofsted will publish the outcome of its consultation soon.

As in the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) regulations 2006 as amended, state schools must notify the local authority when a pupil’s name is to be deleted from the admission register as soon as the ground for deletion under regulation 8 in relation to that pupil is established. The Department will provide guidance on the use of ‘managed moves’, as recommended by Edward Timpson.

The Government will also establish a practice programme that embeds effective partnership working between local authorities, schools, alternative provision and other partners to better equip schools to intervene early for children at risk of exclusion and to ensure that the most effective provision is put in place for those who are excluded. As a large proportion of schools are academies, the programme will support partnership working between local authorities and academies.

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