Agenda item

7.1  The chair invited Ron St Louis, Early Help Team Leader Camberwell and Dulwich Locality ; Darren Coghlan,  Head of Secondary and Further Education Employment and Inclusion and Liz Britton, Manager, Priority Learners to introduce the report.

7.2  Darren Coghlan explained that the report now has contains more accurate real time information provided by schools directly, as well as additional information on the size of the school roll and exclusions expressed as a percentage . He added that the report indicated that 19 children were at risk of permanent exclusion, however as a result of the local authorities work with schools this has now been reduced to 6.

7.3  A member remarked that Kingsdale have zero exclusions and asked if this was accurate. Officers said these figures are correct and the school has a very effective strategy including an off site unit on an estate - technically the children are still on roll, but this allows children to cool off.

7.4  Members asked how schools work with the local authority on exclusions and Ron St Louis explained that officers are notified by the school and take action to look at possible interventions, which could include a managed move.  For example a Harris Academy suggested six exclusions but four of these became managed moves. Another child was in care and the school was encouraged to provide intensive support, and ultimately she moved to a school closer to her foster carer. Another child went to a PRU on a dual registration, which the school paid for, where the child  benefited from the additional support. Darren Coghlan emphasized that the local authority worked well with academy chains and Liz Britton agreed that there was good reciprocity.

7.5  A member asked if sometimes managed moves were done between schools and officers confirmed that this did happen, however the authority was always informed.

7.6  Officers were asked if children can have more than one managed move. Ron St Louis explained that usually children  go to a school on a temporary trail basis and either it works or it dose not, however occasionally pupils return to one school because they have made sufficient progress while at another on trail.

7.7  Officers were asked how a child would be provided with an education once excluded. Ron St Louis explained that they would be provided with work by the school for the first 5 days and after that the pupil would go to a SILS provision provided by the local authority until a more permanent arrangement had been put in place. A member asked if there are ever children that the authority can not place. The officer responded that this is not usual but if a child is post Christmas year 11 it might be better to stay at the SILS. He emphasized that the local authority have an effective "in year fair access process” and the local authority  are obliged to ensure children are provided with an education. Darren Coghlan emphasised that SILS are very effective and very few young people become NEETs.

7.8  A member commented that she was was taken aback by the numbers of fixed term exclusions. Liz Britton commented that: sometimes fix term exclusions are an effective strategy to manage behavior and prevent permanent exclusions. She explained that some are half day exclusions and that some schools, such as Harris Bermondsey have special units that children can attend while things calm down.

7.9  Officers were asked how willing schools are to work with the local authority. Ron St Louis commented that all schools are keen and he had never met a head who would turn a good option for a pupil. He added that exclusions are a key performance indicator for schools. A member asked if all schools were equally willing to cooperate and officers explained that all are keen to receive assistance with exclusions, however some are less keen to reciprocate with managed moves.

7.10  A member commented on the rise in school exclusions are year 11 and asked why that would be. Liz Britton commented that pupils experience a huge amount of pressure that schools are managing around the time of exams. Ron St Louis explained that specific incidents involving a number of children can also skew the numbers. For example there was a situation in a Harris Academy where 5 boys were involved in a fight, and in Walworth there was an also a group situation involving selling knives. These incidents resulted in a number of exclusions.

7.11  A member asked about exclusions at Highshore. She commented that given this is specialist school she was surprised to see fixed exclusions and would have thought that they would be able to offer specialist support on site. Ron St Louis explained that the incidents in Highshore involved knives, and as such would usually have led to permanent exclusion in a mainstream school, however in Highshore they were given a fixed term as the school is able to provide additional support. He added that schools also have to think about the impact of seeing a perpetrator return to a school if a serious incident happened.

7.12  A member asked how the officer support for exclusions was paid and Darren Coghlan explained that this was funded by government as a statutory responsibility.