Nearly a third of parents of pupils with autism have been forced to give up their job after their children were excluded from school, new research shows.

A survey of more than 900 parents and carers by the charity Ambitious About Autism showed that a fifth had gone part-time and 29 per cent had missed days at work.

A total of 30 per cent said they had given up their jobs entirely because of school exclusions, which have risen sharply in recent years.

Previous research by Ambitious About Autism found that exclusions of children with autism from English schools had increased by 60 per cent since 2011.

More than half (56 per cent) of parents surveyed for the new research said their children had been excluded “unlawfully” without any official notice, compared with 45 per cent in 2016.

Ambitious about Autism chief executive Jolanta Lasota said schools should be held accountable for breaking exclusion rules, and she called for a more “inclusive” approach to education.

Children with autism ‘let down by the system’

“Children and young people with autism and their families are being badly let down by our education system,” she said.   

“It’s very worrying that parents are reporting an increase in ‘unofficial’ exclusions - such as children being banned from school trips or sent home early. These add up to hundreds of hours of missed education, but they slip under the radar because they are not officially recorded.”

The findings echo similar figures from Scotland, where a recent study found that more than a third of parents said their autistic child had been unlawfully excluded from school in the past two years.

Autistic children are one of the groups at the heart of a government-ordered review of exclusions being led by former education minister Edward Timpson.

Education secretary Damian Hinds has also pledged to “transform” alternative provision, which caters for many children who have been excluded from mainstream schooling.