The guidance on ‘Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement’ has been updated and comes into effect from 1 September 2023.
This guidance provides schools and other bodies involved in this process with information so that they can continue to use suspensions and permanent exclusions appropriately. In addition, specific changes to the legislation governing the disciplinary school suspension and permanent exclusion process have been made and so changes have been made to the guidance to reflect this.
The following is a list of updates:
- New guidance and amended regulations about a headteacher’s ability to cancel an exclusion before the governing board has met to consider whether the pupil should be reinstated. This practice is sometimes known as withdrawing or rescinding an exclusion. If this occurs, the parents, the governing board and the local authority, must be notified and, if relevant, the social worker and VSH. Further information on other actions that should take place following a cancelled exclusion is set out in paragraph 13.
- Governing board reinstatement meetings and IRPs can now be held via the use of remote access (for example, live video link) for suspension and permanent exclusions if requested by the parents, provided certain criteria are satisfied.
Meetings held via the use of remote access should not be a default option and face to face meetings should always be encouraged. Further information is set out in Part Eleven.
Updates made to the Suspension and Permanent Exclusion guidance in 2022 were as
follows:
- When headteachers suspend or permanently exclude a pupil they must, without delay, notify parents. Legislative changes mean that if a pupil has a social worker, or if a pupil is looked-after, the headteacher must now, also without delay after their decision, notify the social worker and/or VSH, as applicable.
- When headteachers suspend or permanently exclude a pupil, they must also notify the local authority, without delay. Legislative changes mean that this must be done regardless of the length of a suspension.
- Guidance on the role of a social worker and VSH, during governing board
meetings and IRP meetings. - Guidance on managed moves, what they are and how they should be used
- Clarified guidance on the use of off-site direction7 as a short term measure that
can be used as part of a school’s behaviour management strategy - Further guidance on the practice of involving pupils so that any excluded pupil is enabled and encouraged to participate at all stages of the suspension or permanent exclusion process, considering their age and ability to understand.
- Guidance for governing boards to ensure that they review data to consider the level of pupil moves and the characteristics of pupils who have been permanently excluded to ensure the sanction is only used when necessary as a last resort
