Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure that children who are excluded from schools continue to receive a focused and thorough education.

It is the duty of the schools to arrange for the provision of suitable full time education from the sixth day of a fixed period exclusion. Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable full time education for permanently excluded pupils, which must begin no later than the sixth day of the exclusion.

Alternative Provision (AP) is the system in place to educate pupils of compulsory school age who would not otherwise receive a suitable education. The government is taking forward a programme of reform to AP. This includes a £4 million Alternative Provision Innovation Fund with 9 projects underway to improve outcomes for children in AP.

Edward Timpson CBE 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 will report in due course. The full terms of reference for the review can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-exclusions-review-terms-of-reference.