Issue - meetings

Jan Paine, Head of Service - Southern Area, Young People & Access to Education and Ian Watson, Area Service Manager - Inclusion, Access and Engagement to attend to give an update to the Committee on the policy and current position on permanent exclusions.

Ms Paine and Mr Watson made a presentation to the Committee.  Data on permanent exclusions 2005/06 to 2009/10 was circulated at the meeting.  A copy of the presentation slides and data on permanent exclusions 2005/06 to 2009/10 is appended to the signed copy of the minutes.

Mr Watson updated the figures for permanent exclusions in 2009/10 on the presentation slide where “44” should read “45”:  he added that, for comparison, West Berkshire Council had had 4 permanent exclusions and Cambridgeshire County Council had had 124 and some authorities fast-tracked pupils to referral units instead of excluding pupils permanently.  He drew the Committee’s attention to the data which showed that currently one in three exclusions were female pupils but in the past it had been one in four and that the number of exclusions due to persistent disruptive behaviour had reduced from 33 last year to 12 this year and due to verbal abuse – adult from 16 to 2 in the same period.  Schools were now more community-focused providing breakfast clubs and other facilities which had helped to improve attendance.  Training had been provided to help teachers deal more safely with pupils who were getting into conflict situations.  He highlighted that projects were now in place to improve pupils’ skills and motivation for learning.  Pupils who had been excluded were more likely not to be in education, employment or training.  Ms Paine added that teams working with children and families on behavioural issues had helped to reduce the number of exclusions and that attendance at school by children who had offended had improved significantly and the Youth Offending Service was helping children not to reoffend.  Mr Watson confirmed that there would be funding next year for the Back On-Track project based at venues across the county including at the Mill Arts Centre, Banbury and officers were considering options for keeping the project running.

Members asked if data on exclusions could be made available to governors for benchmarking their school’s performance to assist with monitoring.

It was AGREED to welcome progress in reducing the number of permanent exclusions.