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Education and Inspections Bill

moved Amendment No. 222A: ““Permanent exclusion of pupils "(1) This section applies in relation to the permanent exclusion of a disabled pupil or a pupil with special educational needs by any school at which education is provided for him.""(2) No such pupil shall be excluded unless a review has been held of—" (a) the sufficiency and effectiveness of the reasonable adjustments being made for him if he is a disabled pupil, and (b) the special educational provision being made for him if he is a pupil with special educational needs.”” The noble Baroness said: I shall be brief in moving Amendment No. 222A because I am joined on this amendment by the much greater experience and wisdom of the noble Lord, Lord Rix, and the noble Baroness, Lady Darcy de Knayth. The purpose of the amendment is to ensure that a disabled pupil or one with special educational needs has a review before he is permanently excluded from school. As we noted in an earlier debate, the figures are stark: the Pupil Level Annual School Census data for 2003-04 show that two-thirds of exclusions are of pupils with SEN.That is clearly unacceptable. Exclusions affect disproportionately those pupils whose special educational needs impact on their behaviour, which means that these are precisely the children who need to be kept in school in order to benefit from education and support. Further figures from the National Autistic Society are of deep concern to the Special Education Consortium and should likewise be of concern to us. They indicate that around 27 per cent of autistic children have been excluded from school at least once, with 23 per cent more than once. As was mentioned in an earlier debate, these numbers hide an even larger number of children who are excluded. Many organisations running parent helplines report a number of practices where children are being informally excluded. For example, a parent may be asked not to bring a child into school until10 o’clock in the morning, or a grandad on the mum’s behalf may be told to collect a child after lunch each day. We know that such practices are illegal, but parents are often not aware of it. However, they may be so concerned to keep their child in school that even if they do know that these practices are against the law, they are prepared to go along with it because of the problems they face in trying to keep their child in education. The Select Committee report on special educational needs recognised the problem, while Jim Knight in another place mentioned it during the Third Reading debate on 24 May. This amendment would provide disabled pupils and those with SEN at risk of exclusion with a statutory requirement for an early review to ensure that adjustments and provision are being made for them before they can be permanently excluded. I beg to move.