Southwark Council is aiming to cut the number of children excluded from school to zero.
Under new plans unveiled on Monday (July 19), the council will get schools, families, social workers and other groups to work together to keep children in the classroom.
That may be “alternative provision” like special educational needs (SEND) schools or the pupil referral unit. The council added that while they would strive for 100 per cent inclusion, they recognised that “there are rare instances where exclusion is unavoidable to safeguard children.”
The number of children being excluded in Southwark has already fallen dramatically in recent years, from 49 in 2018, to 36 in 2019, to just ten in 2020 – although this was during the pandemic. Kids in Southwark are now less likely to be excluded than elsewhere in inner London, and the UK more widely. Roughly two per cent of kids – some 1,000 students – are also suspended temporarily every year.
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But the rate of exclusion is unequal. Children from poorer families in Southwark – receiving free school meals – students in care, and pupils with special needs are much more likely to be excluded than students in the borough as a whole. Meanwhile students of black Caribbean heritage are about six times as likely to be excluded as white British children.
Education chief Cllr Jasmine Ali said she and others working on the council’s inclusion charter “find it deeply disturbing” that these children are more likely to be excluded than other groups.
She added: “Our approach on inclusion is less about ‘disruptive’ and ‘excluded’ ‘youths’ and more about how we can help vulnerable children…
“Southwark is not just a partner: it is a parent and the responsible authority. Our duty is to protect our children.
“So we have to work hard to prevent them being excluded. We want our to stay in school, so they get the best education and a fair start in life, so they have less chance of mental health issues, less chance of ending up on drugs, in gangs or in prison, and so they are safer.”
The charter – which Southwark says is the first of its kind – has been long in the making, with Cllr Ali, schools, and other groups working on the plan since January 2020, with a pause for Covid.
The former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield, who is researching how to improve the lives of at-risk young people, welcomed the news. She said on social media: “Great to see Southwark schools sign up not to exclude pupils. An important move for a council already committed to mental health support for all children who need it with a trailblazing drop in hub & youth support. Showing what can be done everywhere.”
The news comes as the number of fines for children missing school also dropped dramatically in Southwark.
A Freedom of Information request by the News found that the council issued 81 fines to parents for their children not being in school in the 2018/2019 academic year, with a total value of £4,860. That dropped to just 23 in mid-June of this year,