Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures her Department has implemented to support children who are permanently excluded from school.

Exclusion from school is not the end of a pupil's education. Where a pupil has been permanently excluded, the Local Authority must arrange suitable full-time education for them to begin no later than the sixth school day following the exclusion.

In the White Paper ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’ we announced reforms to the system of alternative provision which will strengthen the accountability of schools when permanently excluding pupils. Under these changes schools will remain accountable for the education of pupils in alternative provision and will be responsible for commissioning high quality provision. In addition to this, the reforms include a number of measures to raise the standards of alternative provision providers so that every child is given the best possible opportunity to fulfil their potential. The full text of the Educational Excellence Everywhere White Paper can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/educational-excellence-everywhere.