Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations of the Timpson Review of School Exclusion, published in May 2019.

Good behaviour and discipline in schools is crucial if children are to reach their full potential. The Department supports head teachers to use suspensions and expulsions when required as part of creating calm and disciplined classrooms that bring out the best in every pupil. Expulsion 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 on school behaviour across the school system. In April we commenced the Behaviour Hubs programme, investing £10 million that will help schools to develop and sustain a culture where good behaviour is the norm. Training is also being reformed 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 will continue to work with Ofsted to tackle the practice of ‘off-rolling’ which is an unacceptable practice. Additionally, the Department will be consulting on how to help head teachers remove phones in schools, and other revisions to the Department’s behaviour and discipline 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.