Archived decisions

THE EDUCATION OTHER THAN AT SCHOOL (EOTAS) SERVICE AND SCHOOL EXCLUSIONS 2002/03

1. The Executive Member has considered a full report giving details of the EOTAS service restructuring, staffing, accommodation and budget, together with statistics on permanent exclusions from Hampshire Schools during the academic year 2002/03. Considerable progress has been made in working towards the restructured service becoming fully staffed, and it is hoped to make permanent appointments of managers for the outstanding two Education Centres which currently have vacancies. Behaviour support teams are now established in four areas of the county and arrangements are being made to extend that valuable service throughout the county. In addition, the Drug Advisory Response Team has made a significant contribution through their work with young people who have become involved in drug or substance misuse.

2. Despite these initiatives, numbers of permanent exclusions from Hampshire Schools remain high and the Executive Member has endorsed the need for more intervention and preventative work to obviate the need for exclusions in the first place, and also for effective reintegration wherever possible after exclusions. Despite the acknowledged costs of so doing, it is clear that this is an essential area of local education authority activity, since failure to deal appropriately with disruptive behaviour at school will only compound social problems into the future.

3. In the 2002/03 academic year, permanent exclusions from Hampshire Schools have risen slightly, by 1.7%, from 229 to 233. Both this year and last show a marked increase over the levels of permanent exclusions in the preceding two years. Of those permanent exclusions in 2002/03, 22 were referred to independent appeal panels: in 18 cases the exclusion was upheld whereas in 4 cases the pupil was reinstated. In addition there were four more cases where the Independent Appeal Panel used new flexibility within the law to overturn an exclusion, but still did not reinstate the child to the school because of exceptional circumstances. The sustained increase in numbers of permanent exclusion poses particular challenges for the exclusions staff given the complications of many cases and the need to present local education authority views to pupil discipline committees and Independent Appeal Panel hearings.

4. Since 1 September 2002 Education Authorities have been required to make arrangements for all permanently excluded pupils to receive full-time educational provision. This may be arranged in a number of ways, including full time attendance at an Education Centre (previously known as a pupil referral unit) attendance at college, work training placements or distance-learning, or a combination of these. The rising trend in permanent exclusions has caused considerable problems both in terms of funding and accommodation and the necessary action is being taken.

5. The Education Other Than At School service is currently the subject of a Best Value Review, and clearly the proposals emerging from "Every Child Matters" will have an impact on the service. EOTAS will continue to work with the Youth Service, Education Psychology Service, Education Welfare Service, Social Services, the Special Educational Needs Service and Connexions, in order to provide a range of effective behaviour management strategies to support schools and help them prevent permanent exclusion. The Executive Member is convinced of the need for close monitoring of exclusions, both fixed-term and permanent, and to that end he receives a termly report giving details of excluded pupils and the educational provision being made to meet their needs.