Behaviour and Discipline in Schools

Memorandum submitted by Barnardo’s

Introduction

1. Barnardo's has extensive experience of working to improve the life chances of disadvantaged children and young people. We believe in the unique potential of education to break the cycle of poverty. Over two thirds of our services include education as part of their mission and many work effectively to enable young people at risk of school exclusion to continue their education.

2. We use the experience and evidence gained from our direct work with children to campaign for better policy and to champion the rights of every child. With committed support and a little belief even the hardest to reach children and young people can turn their lives around.

3. We welcome the Education Select Committee’s Inquiry into Behaviour and Discipline as emerging policy from the Coalition Government [1] indicates that permanent exclusions may become more prevalent [2] . Barnardo’s experience shows that the young people most at risk of school exclusion benefit from stable routines and boundaries, whether at school or in alternative provision and that being sent away to a chaotic home or risky community makes their behaviour worse, not better.

4. We have been able to find no evidence that exclusions improve behaviour, but substantial evidence of the long-term damage exclusions can have on a young person’s life-chances, as well as significant costs to the public purse.

5. Despite recent reductions in numbers of permanent exclusions, the relative risks of being excluded remain high for disadvantaged groups of young people, with Black Caribbean boys being three times more likely to be excluded, children with special educational needs ten times more likely, and primary school children on free school meals, five times as likely, accounting for close to half of all permanent exclusions at primary level. [3] The increased risk of exclusion associated with poverty worsens the education achievement gap which the Coalition Government is committed to addressing.

6. Barnardo's has just completed in-depth research into early intervention and alternative provision which helps young people at risk of school exclusion to learn how to manage their behaviour and re-engage in learning, avoiding the long term damage that results from permanent or repeated fixed-term exclusion from school. This research will be published in late October and copies of the report will be sent to members of the Education Select Committee. The research was undertaken at Barnardo's services working in partnership with other projects, schools and local authorities aiming to reduce the incidence of school exclusion. Members of the Committee are warmly invited to visit Barnardo’s services and meet the young people we work with to inform their deliberations on behaviour and discipline issues.

________________________________________________________________

Recommendations

i) Our research shows that family problems often underlie difficult behaviour in school. Barnardo's recommends the wide availability of early intervention for family and social issues, easily accessible through schools, to offer young people and their families timely support before a crisis is reached.

ii) The academic focus of school and traditional classroom methods alienate many young people. Our experience is that they often learn better from a youth work approach or in practical, vocational settings. Alternative and applied vocational pathways, involving work-based learning should be available as a positive 14-19 option for those young people whose potential is not unlocked by mainstream education [1]

iii) Repeat fixed-term exclusions do not ‘nip problems in the bud’; they disrupt a young person’s education. Government statistics and our research show that they are used repeatedly on the same young people, indicating that they do nothing to improve behaviour. Barnardo's recommends that these are not used as a routine penalty, but instead that persistent poor behaviour becomes a trigger for targeted support or alternative provision.

7. This submission focuses on the following:

Ø The impact of school exclusion

Ø Partnership working with schools and local authorities

Ø Engaging parents and carers and coping with family problems

Ø Effective alternatives and early intervention

The impact of school exclusion

8. Barnardo's welcomes the recent reduction in permanent exclusions to 0.09% [4] of the school population as this shows that exclusions can become a last resort. However we remain concerned about the complacent use of repeat fixed-term exclusions which affect one in twenty of the secondary school population. [5] The repeat use of temporary exclusions shows that they are not an effective penalty and do nothing to improve behaviour. These exclusions, which may be on the sole decision of the head teacher, without further scrutiny, are highly disruptive to the young person’s education and give already disaffected young people the message that attendance at school is not expected when things get difficult. Some young people experience up to nine school weeks of exclusions in a year-a significant disruption to their education which indicates that alternatives should be sought sooner.

9. Barnardo's accepts that on rare occasions removal from school may be the only option for severe and dangerous disciplinary problems. However, the fact that ‘persistent disruptive behaviour’ is a factor in 30 per cent of permanent exclusions is evidence that too many young people are being excluded for behaviour that has noticeably been a problem for some time, causing unnecessary disruption to their own learning and that of their classmates when early intervention or alternative provision could have been used sooner.

10. Unofficial exclusions are illegal, but regrettably Barnardo’s research with disadvantaged and vulnerable young people indicates that they are still used as a disciplinary measure under a range of excuses such as cooling off time, extended study leave and reduced timetable. Previous research for Barnardo's [6] found that pregnant teenagers were frequently sent home from school on spurious health and safety grounds. This disruption to a young person’s education without regard to their rights is an unacceptable practice and can put already vulnerable young people at risk, leaving them isolated and unsupervised at home or in the community. [7] [8]

11. In some areas managed moves [9] and zero permanent exclusions [10] have been achieved. However, successful implementation of a zero exclusion policy relies on carefully monitoring young people at risk of exclusion, intervening early where difficulties occur, and providing a range of alternative provision to enable swift and appropriate alternative placements. The managed move process is greatly helped by schools co-operating in local partnerships.

12. Exclusion is an expensive option. Government figures show that the cost of a place in a Pupil Referral Unit is £15,000 per annum. [11] To this can be added the long term costs of supporting an individual who has had a disrupted education, poor qualifications and an increased risk of involvement in crime [12] and anti-social behaviour. [13] Castle and Parsons show that the costs of working with a challenging young person are simply shunted, through the act of exclusion, from the school and the education authority to other services in the community such as social care and criminal justice. [14] Work though a Barnardo’s service to prevent exclusion and reintegrate the young person with their school costs an average of £1,696 per child, plus the cost of keeping them on the school roll at the same time of approximately £4000 a year.

Working in partnership with schools and Local Authorities

13. Barnardo's services which prevent or reduce exclusions, work in partnership with schools and local authorities. Some are based in schools and others maintain close links with key officials in the Local Authority. Local Authority partners and schools recognise the value of working with non-statutory partners like Barnardo's to support young people’s behaviour and learning at times of stress and help them to cope with distracting personal problems which too often affect their behaviour, such as family breakdown, parental substance abuse, homelessness and bereavement.

Effective alternatives and early intervention

14. Our forthcoming research report presents an in-depth picture of practice at four services in partnership with, or run by, Barnardo’s, which work with young people at risk of exclusion, or who have already been excluded. These are:

Ø A service working with families to relieve the pressures of crises at home that often affect concentration and behaviour at school.

Ø A vocational training provider working with young people at risk of disengagement who choose to take a vocational qualification as part of their Key Stage 4 options and gain a range of skills for employment

Ø A service using a youth work approach and tailored qualifications to offer Black Caribbean young people an alternative curriculum with follow-up mentoring to successfully reintegrate them back into mainstream school.

Ø A late intervention service offering intensive support to young people with significant unmet needs, whose school careers and family lives had been chaotic.

Engaging parents and carers and coping with family problems

15. Bad behaviour in school is frequently the result of underlying family problems which distract the young person from learning. Helping young people cope better with these problems was central to the work at one of Barnardo's services.

16. Workers can provide liaison between the school and the family, as relationships with have often broken down and families can become stressed and unable to understand what they should do for the best

17. Barnardo’s experience shows the benefits of intervening early to prevent exclusions, for example through helping to resolve family difficulties or providing alternatives if a crisis point had been reached. Barnardo’s services providing alternatives supported local authorities with low or zero levels of permanent exclusion and worked effectively with a youth work approach or vocational options where a traditional classroom approach had alienated the young person from school.

18. Barnardo's recommends that a range of properly resourced alternatives and early intervention options are in place in every area to work with the diverse range of young people, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are at risk of exclusion. Investment in such services will result in long-term savings to the public purse, while reducing the damage done to a young person’s life chances when they are excluded from school, and the inevitable disruption caused to teachers, classmates, family and the community.

September 2010