Schools to take over responsibility for pupils they have expelled

The Government announced it is to start a new trial which will see headteachers decide where excluded pupils are taught.

Under the current system, when a child is permanently excluded, their parents take responsibility for them for the first five days after the exclusion.

It is then up to the local authority to provide the youngster with full-time education, for example in a pupil referral unit, or another organisation, such as one that specialises in vocational subjects or improving behaviour.

It is this responsibility that will now be handed to schools.

Around 300 secondary schools in England are due to take part in the three-year trial, in total around 3,000 youngsters who are at risk of being excluded will be covered.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “We have significant concerns about these proposals, because schools need to be able to exclude pupils sometimes and we are most anxious that no deterrents are put in place which would stop schools from the decision they make rarely, but need to be able to make sometimes.”

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: “Improving behaviour in our schools is a key priority of the Government, which is why we support headteachers who permanently exclude those children who persistently disrupt the education of others or who bully other children.

“We need to ensure, however, that exclusion does not lead those children to abandon education.”

In 2009/10, 5,020 secondary school pupils were permanently excluded, the Department for Education said.