It has taken a few years, but awareness of the rising number of pupils being excluded from English schools has grown to the point where the problem has become impossible to ignore. In the process, observers have become wiser to the methods used by schools seeking to expel awkward children without resorting to the formal last resort of permanent exclusion. Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman has made “off-rolling”, as such informal transfers are known, one of the key themes of her tenure. A year ago, the former children’s minister Edward Timpson was commissioned to produce a review of exclusions. The government has yet to publish this, no doubt because it makes uncomfortable reading for the Conservative politicians who bear ultimate responsibility for the state of England’s schools.
New analysis showing that the number of primary-age pupils in pupil referral units (PRUs) doubled between 2011-18 to 1,572 is the latest troubling evidence of this unwelcome trend. The number of under-16s in alternative provision, including PRUs, stands at nearly 60,000. While most settings inspected by Ofsted are good or outstanding, there are places where all alternative provision is inadequate. Children with special educational needs, those who are poor, and ethnic minorities are over-represented. Teacher vacancies are uncomfortably high. Outcomes are poor. But raising the standard of alternative provision is only part of the answer. The point is that too many children are being shut out from the mainstream.
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