School suspensions hits record levels in Yorkshire with disadvantaged and SEN pupils worst affected
There is an attendance and suspension crisis engulfing Yorkshire’s schools, new figures reveal, with thousands of the most vulnerable and impoverished children slipping through the cracks of a strained system.
The latest data shows record levels of suspensions in Yorkshire and the Humber, with 16.5 pupils per 100 getting suspended in 2023-24.
This is the second highest rate in England after the North East, and almost quadruple the level of 10 years earlier.
Bradford, Sheffield and Barnsley have some of the highest levels of suspensions and exclusions in the country.
While almost one in five pupils in the last school year were classed as persistently absent, which means they miss more than 10 per cent of their lessons.
Analysis from the Who is Losing Learning Coalition found that those with special educational needs (SEN) make up almost half of the suspensions.
“There’s no sugarcoating it, children with SEN in the UK are being systemically failed in so many ways,” Charlotte Farrington, chief executive at the Yorkshire Children’s Charity, said.
“We’ve increasingly got children being diagnosed with ADHD, with autism, and I believe are being put into a system which sets them up to fail.”
The figures show that children on free school meals are four times more likely to be suspended.
Ms Farrington said she often interacts with youngsters who do not have the basic clothing and footwear to go to school.
This winter, the charity delivered 10,000 essential items to youngsters across the region, and 80 per cent of the schools involved saw an increase in attendance.
“That’s all because the children had shoes and coats to be able to get there,” Ms Farrington said.
“You’re looking at a lack of the most basic means for why children can’t access education.”
Speaking about the figures, Ms Farrington said: “There’s nothing that makes me sadder, as ultimately education is their only route out of poverty, it’s the only hope they have.
“Schools are not just a place for these kids to be educated, they are their lifeline, their safety net and somewhere where the most vulnerable children are checked on regularly.”
These latest figures come after a Yorkshire Post investigation into the crisis found that a draconian approach to tackling school attendance is forcing children to often be taught at home, in what could be considered unsuitable environments.
Parents from across the region have said they felt forced to home educate as their children with autism were not given enough support, and ended up lashing out and getting excluded.
One told this paper their son “doesn't fit the system”. She added: “He has been failed in his first years."
Jason Arthur, chief executive at Mission 44, Lewis Hamilton’s foundation, said: “These figures expose a system that is unable to support thousands of young people — especially those on the margins, who remain significantly more likely to be excluded from school.
“For too long, disadvantage and discrimination have created barriers to learning, denying opportunity and writing off potential. When children are sent home instead of being supported, it isn’t just a failure of the system – it’s a failure of justice.
“Preventing exclusions is one of the most effective things we can do to break the cycle of inequity so that lost learning today doesn’t become lost futures tomorrow.”
Early Education Minister Stephen Morgan, said: “Every moment in the classroom counts - but with almost one million suspensions in the 2023 academic year, the evidence is clear that this government’s inheritance was classrooms in chaos, with swathes of the next generation cut off from the opportunity to get on in life.
“Through our Plan for Change, we’ve wasted no time in tackling the root causes of poor behaviour, including by providing access to mental health support in every school, making sure every child gets the fuel they need to learn through free breakfast clubs and expanding free school meals, and launching our new Attendance and Behaviour Hubs which will directly support the 500 schools that need the most help.
“We’re also continuing to listen to parents as we reform the SEN system, while already putting in place better and earlier support for speech and language needs, ADHD and autism and £740 million to encourage councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools.”