Schools: Exclusions

Lord Watson of Invergowrie Excerpts

Tuesday 15th December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. As I said previously, school staff have a duty of care to pupils, whether they are at school or at home. Many head teachers do not exclude people even when they legally could, because they understand the home situation. That is why we are also looking to improve alternative provision and other, more local initiatives around family support— to make sure that we can help these young people and that they get out of the cycle that they may be in.

[Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Lab)]

My Lords, would the noble Baroness accept that, although the DfE guidelines could be amended—perhaps better to reflect best practice on exclusions currently followed by head teachers—to add a further statutory duty, as suggested by the noble Lord, Lord Lupton, would not be appropriate given all the other duties added to those of school teachers? It would be neither necessary nor appropriate.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

As I have said, head teachers do not take these decisions lightly and they have a duty of care. We believe that the overwhelming majority of schools and head teachers work very well and closely with local services in order to make sure that there is provision to support both these young people and their families, who often have many complex needs and need broad help from local services.