There has been a “sharp increase” in the informal exclusion of care-experienced young people in Scotland - including the use of “drastic part-time timetables offering as little as 30 minutes of education a week” - as schools attempt to “circumvent new exclusions policies”, finds a report.
The report, from children’s commissioner Nicola Killean and Who Cares? Scotland, also highlights the continuing use of formal exclusion, despite the 2020 Independent Care Review calling for an end to formal and informal exclusions for care-experienced pupils. A route map published in 2021 set the goal of achieving this by 2024.
However, the latest figures show that the exclusion rate for looked-after children rose for the first time in 12 years in 2022-23, and was almost six times higher than the rate for all pupils.
There were 78 exclusions per 1,000 looked-after pupils in 2020-21, rising to 97 exclusions per 1,000 pupils in 2022-23. The exclusion rate for all pupils in 2022-23 was 17 per 1,000.
Informal exclusions of pupils in care
The report warns there is a “growing gap in access to education” between care-experienced young people and their peers, “due to the high use of part-time timetables, formal and informal exclusions and specialist education placement”.
It says that discussion about the attainment gap and care-experienced young people’s outcomes “are futile” without addressing this gap in access.
Since 2023, “advocacy workers report a sharp increase in informal exclusions and a change in language around exclusions” as schools try “to circumvent new exclusions policies stemming from The Promise [that care-experienced children and young people ‘will grow up loved, safe and respected’]”, the report says.
It adds that care-experienced pupils are being excluded from school via authorised absence and “drastic part-time timetables”, which avoid the need to record formal exclusions.
The report states: “One advocacy worker described this as improving the school’s statistics at the detriment of the needs of the child. Another called it as ‘exclusion labelled as support’.”
It makes three recommendations, including that the Scottish government delivers on the commitment to end formal and informal exclusion of care-experienced pupils “immediately”.
“Moves to change language around exclusions to circumvent The Promise must not be tolerated,” it says.
Ms Killean said: “This report shows that despite some examples of good practice, care-experienced children and young people’s right to education is often not being met. They are more often excluded from school than other children and are often given part-time timetables that they do not want.
“In some cases a child can be on a timetable for as little as 30 minutes or one hour a week, even if they want to be in school for longer.”
‘Full right to education must be realised’
Louise Hunter, chief executive of Who Cares? Scotland, said it was not enough for care-experienced young people “to receive a bare minimum of school”.
“Their full right to education must be realised,” she added.
However, when discussing exclusion recently, education secretary Jenny Gilruth emphasised that it is a consequence that schools can - and should - use.
At the annual general meeting of the EIS teaching union in Aviemore this month, Ms Gilruth was questioned over the action that the government was taking to tackle worsening pupil behaviour in schools.
She said new guidance on consequences would be published in the coming weeks. That guidance is now expected to be published tomorrow.
Ms Gilruth said it was “not good enough” if schools were getting “pushback” from local authorities when they tried to use exclusions.
“You should be able to use it and use your professional judgement to apply it,” she told EIS delegates.
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