An MP who chairs a cross-party group on youth violence has called for funding to be switched from pupil referral units to mainstream schools to cut permanent exclusion rates.
Vicky Foxcroft, who chairs the all-party Youth Violence Commission, told MPs that there was a link between pupils being permanently excluded and becoming involved in violence.
The Labour MP used a Commons debate on school exclusions and youth violence, which she held last night, to call for an inclusive accountability system to incentivise schools to keep pupils on their rolls.
She said: “I am asking the department to consider conducting a fundamental review of how funding for alternative provision is best spent.
“As I stated earlier, the Youth Violence Commission’s findings ultimately point towards achieving zero exclusions, but we note that this is a long-term goal and that smaller steps need to be achieved along the way.
“Primary schoolteachers frequently tell me that they can identify which of their pupils are likely to be involved in future violence. The current system is failing too many of those children and simply has to change.”
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The Youth Violence Commission report last year recommended that there should be a “long-term aspiration of zero expulsions from mainstream education and a reallocation of funding away from PRUs towards support and earlier intervention in mainstream schools.”
Last year the Commons Education Select Committee also held hearings into alternative provision and exclusions.
‘Lack of moral accountability’
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, told MPs there needed to be an “honest broker” to challenge headteachers’ decisions about excluding pupils, suggesting local authorities could do this.
MPs produced a highly critical report which warned about a “lack of moral accountability” among many schools which have little incentive to keep on students that are seen as “difficult or challenging”.
It also warned of an “alarming” increase in “hidden” exclusions - when pupils are unofficially removed from lessons.
Ms Foxcroft told MPs yesterday that an idea that had come out of a discussion with teaching unions was for schools to be held accountable for every pupil who arrived in their school at Year 7.
She added: “Although that might cause some problems with schools refusing to take perceived ‘problem’ pupils in the first place, it would address the problem of off-rolling in GCSE years in an attempt to improve results.”
She also welcomed Ofsted’s plans to focus more on off-rolling through its new inspection framework.
Responding, school standards minister Nick Gibb said: “Alternative provision is not necessarily widespread across the country, and we are determined to make sure that every alternative provision setting is as good as the best in the country and that the best practice is shared.
“That is why we are taking forward an ambitious programme of reform to the AP system over the coming months and years, which we believe will deliver sustained improvement.”
