Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he Is taking to minimise waiting times for permanently excluded pupils to be found a new school place.

The Government’s response to Edward Timpson’s review of school exclusion sets out our commitment to ensure that pupils who have been excluded from school continue to benefit from high-quality education.

There are already duties in place to ensure children who are excluded from school are in education from the sixth day of their exclusion. The education provided must be full-time, or as close to full-time, if full-time would not be in a child’s best interests because of his or her health needs.

Statutory guidance is also clear that schools should help to minimise the disruption that exclusion can cause to an excluded pupil’s education including considering starting alternative provision as soon as possible after the exclusion. In the case of a looked after child, the school and the local authority should work together to arrange alternative provision from the first day following the exclusion. Where it is not possible, or not appropriate, to arrange alternative provision during the first five school days of an exclusion, the school should take reasonable steps to set and mark work for the pupil.

Fair access protocols exist to ensure that, outside the normal admissions round, unplaced children, especially the hardest to place and most vulnerable, are offered a place at a suitable school as quickly as possible. However, the Department is aware there can be delays in the in-year admission of such children. As such, the Department is currently considering improvements to the in-year admission process, including Fair Access Protocols, to ensure that all children, especially the most vulnerable, can access a new school place as quickly as possible.