Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Timpson Review of School Exclusion, what progress has been made on updating guidance for head teachers on their powers to exclude pupils; and when a consultation on that revised guidance will be published.

The Department is taking forward an ambitious programme of reform which will respect head teachers’ powers to use exclusion, while equipping schools to support children at risk of exclusion and ensuring excluded children continue to receive a good education.

As part of this, the Department will re-write guidance on exclusions and behaviour to offer clearer, more consistent guidance to schools on managing behaviour, the use of in-school units, managed moves and the circumstances where it may be appropriate to use exclusion.

The Department is engaging with stakeholders including schools and local authorities on this ambitious programme of action, and it will publish guidance by summer 2020.