Children’s life chances ‘diminished’ by huge increase in school exclusions and suspensions across Yorkshire
The number of suspensions across England has hit record levels, the latest figures have shown, while permanent exclusions increased by 44 per cent in the 2022-23 academic year.
Yorkshire and the Humber has the second highest rate of suspended pupils in England, behind the North East.
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Hide AdIt has well over double the rate of school suspensions compared with London, and is significantly higher than the West Midlands and the North West


It comes as 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 unsuitable environments.
There has been a 71 per cent increase in the number of prosecutions against parents in the region over their child's school attendance in 2023 compared with 2019.
Surveys suggest that the main reason for homeschooling is that parents don’t feel schools have the capacity to look after their child’s special educational needs and mental health requirements.
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Hide AdParents 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."
Former Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield said the suspension figures are “shocking” and that the previous government “had stuck its head in the sand about the scale of the problem”.
“A fifth of children are persistently absent and everyone knows the huge risks that brings - it needs doubling down on the support for schools, teachers,” she told the Yorkshire Post.
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Hide AdIlkley-based Ms Longfield, who is now the executive chair of the new Centre For Young Lives, said a lot of this is around children who have special educational needs.
And on the situation in Yorkshire and the Humber, she explained it was partly down to the impact of the Covid pandemic and also the inequalities across the region.
“It’s a toxic, vicious circle of entrenched disadvantage, the pandemic hitting hard and poorer communities not having the resilience to respond, which we see coming through with kids in terms of their behaviour,” she said.
“Schools just don’t have the capacity or the resources to offer that bespoke one to one support they need.
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Hide Ad“Ultimately these are children’s life chances and education that are being diminished as a result.”
Education Minister Stephen Morgan said: “These shocking figures are a wake-up call about the problems that have grown in our schools in recent years.
“They put into sharp focus that too many pupils are being held back by their background and that our education system is failing to meet the needs of children with additional needs.”
He added: “We know poor behaviour can also be rooted in wider issues, which is why the government is developing an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty.”
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