Exclusions

Exclusion guidance.

The Department for Education (DfE) has produced new Exclusion Guidance which outlines the procedures for all suspensions and permanent exclusions. It applies to all maintained, academy and free schools, plus alternative provision academies and pupil referral units, and is applicable from 1 September 2023.

Key points:

• Guidance and amended regulations about a headteacher’s ability to cancel an exclusion before the governing board has met to consider whether the pupil should be reinstated. This practice is sometimes known as withdrawing or rescinding an exclusion. If this occurs, the parents, the governing board and the local authority, must be notified and, if relevant, the social worker and VSH. Further information on other actions that should take place following a cancelled exclusion is set out in paragraph 13.
• Governing board reinstatement meetings and IRPs can now be held via the use of remote access (for example, live video link) for suspension and permanent exclusions if requested by the parents, provided certain criteria are satisfied. Meetings held via the use of remote access should not be a default option and face to face meetings should always be encouraged. Further information is set out in Part Eleven.
• When headteachers suspend or permanently exclude a pupil they must, without delay, notify parents. Legislative changes mean that if a pupil has a social worker, or if a pupil is looked-after, the headteacher must now, also without delay after their decision, notify the social worker and/or VSH, as applicable.
• When headteachers suspend or permanently exclude a pupil, they must also notify the local authority, without delay. Legislative changes mean that this must be done regardless of the length of a suspension.
• Guidance on the role of a social worker and VSH, during governing board meetings and IRP meetings.
• Guidance on managed moves, what they are and how they should be used.
• Clarified guidance on the use of off-site direction as a short term measure that can be used as part of a school’s behaviour management strategy.
• Further guidance on the practice of involving pupils so that any excluded pupil is enabled and encouraged to participate at all stages of the suspension or permanent exclusion process, considering their age and ability to understand.
• Guidance for governing boards to ensure that they review data to consider the level of pupil moves and the characteristics of pupils who have been permanently excluded to ensure the sanction is only used when necessary as a last resort.

Schools may also find the attached Exclusions and SEND document useful in clarifying legal advice associated with pupils with exclusion and pupils with SEND.

Exclusion notification

1. Permanent exclusion

On the first day of the permanent exclusion, all schools (regardless of which school management information system is used) will need to:

Fill in the PEX notification Granicus Form to inform the local authority of the start date of the exclusion, reason for exclusion, confirm parental contact details, and confirm deadlines/timescales for governing board meetings.

Add the exclusion details on your school management information system (MIS).

Please note that it is important to contact the Exclusion & Access Team directly if a permanent exclusion is cancelled by the headteacher or the governing board has reinstated the pupil. The Exclusion & Access Team can advise school on exclusion processes.

2. Suspensions (formally fixed period exclusions)

All suspensions need inputting into the school management information system (MIS) without delay and to enable key agencies and the local authority to be alerted. Schools will need to refer to their specific MIS handbooks/service provider for advice on recording suspensions on their school systems.

Non-Integris schools

The local authority has devised a suspensions template sheet which needs to be completed as soon as the suspension occurs and returned to the Exclusion & Access Team direct via perspective lite. Guidance notes entitled Suspensions template instructions have been produced to assist with schools' completion of the spreadsheet and to ensure that it can be imported into local authority systems. Please ensure you are using the latest template (V5).

Integris schools

Schools who use the Integris MIS should record suspension and exclusion details via the Behaviour Module. Guidance to input exclusion data on Integris is available on S4S. Please note you must be logged in to access the documents. If information is entered correctly and as soon as the suspension or exclusion occurs, the data is automatically collected by the local authority. Integris schools do not need to send a separate report for suspensions, and only advise the Exclusion & Access Team for a permanent exclusion (as above). Please be aware that Integris schools will need to have a Data Sharing Agreement between the school and the local authority for the data to import.

Exclusion recording and attendance codes

Full exclusion data (including start/end date (where relevant), reasons, and length of exclusion) need to be entered regularly into school MIS. The attendance details will also need to reflect the pupil’s exclusion status i.e. attendance code ‘E'. Please note it is not sufficient to only enter the attendance code ‘E’ as it does not provide the local authority with enough specific exclusion details to meet DfE requirements.

Contacts:

General exclusion guidance/policy queries:
Sharon Neak - Exclusion and Access team leader
Email: CS.ExclusionAndAccessTeam@derbyshire.gov.uk

Integris MIS queries:
School Training and Support Team
Email: cs.schoolsupport@derbyshire.gov.uk
Tel: 01629 536789.