Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress he has made in implementing the recommendations of the Timpson Review on school exclusions.

Good behaviour and discipline in schools is crucial if children are to reach their full potential. The Department backs head teachers to use suspensions and expulsions when required as part of creating the calm and disciplined classrooms needed to support effective teaching. The Department is also clear that expulsions should only be used as a last resort and expulsion from school should not mean exclusion from education.

Since the publication of the Timpson Review and agreeing the recommendations in principle, the Government has been pursuing a programme of work to support effective behaviour management across the school system. In April, the Department commenced the Behaviour Hubs programme, investing £10 million to help schools develop and sustain cultures where good pupil behaviour is normal. The Department has reformed training and development for teachers as part of the Early Career Framework, so that all new teachers will be shown how to effectively manage behaviour in their first two years in the profession from September 2021. The Department has also continued to work with Ofsted to tackle ‘off-rolling’ which is an unacceptable practice. Additionally, the Department will be consulting on how to help head teachers to remove phones in schools, and other revisions to the Department’s behaviour, discipline and suspensions and expulsions guidance, later in the year.

The Department intends to go further and is committed to improving outcomes for children and young people in alternative provision who are most at risk of expulsion and disengaging from education. The Department will set out its plans in the forthcoming SEND review.