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Baroness Blatch: My Lords, I want to speak briefly, but with some feeling, about one of the points made by my noble friend. I refer to the issue of where exclusions are made and no attempt is made to assess the child's need. In this year of autism awareness, we know that at this moment—because we are all receiving a good deal of correspondence about the issue—a record number of people with autism are being expelled or "excluded" from school, which I believe is the contemporary name for it. For the family, that is really distressing. They know that they have a problem with their child; they are banging their heads against the wall to make someone take notice of them. I am in correspondence with a lady from Hertfordshire who has been battling for years with the local authority for proper provision for her son, who has autism.
We have a real opportunity here. If the amendment is not perfect, we can discuss doing something about it by Third Reading. My noble friend Lord Lucas has a point. A good teacher will know whether the problem is wilful naughtiness or wilful difficult behaviour or whether the child is uncontrollable and apparently incapable of managing its mood swings. An attempt should be made by someone within the education system to make a proper assessment so that, if the child is excluded, it is excluded on proper grounds and not simply because it is in need of other forms of treatment.
One has only to consider the occupants of our prison cells throughout the country to understand how many young people have ended up in a life of crime and have been taken into custody. What they need is some form of assessment and medical help.
The Earl of Listowel: My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendments Nos. 98D and 98E, which are in the group. Previous speakers have put the case most eloquently. My amendments are on similar lines and I hope that they give the Minister a choice of drafting as to the preferable direction to take.
The purpose of Amendment No. 98E is to encourage schools to consider an assessment, especially of educational needs, before excluding a pupil. Its effect would be to oblige disciplinary committees and independent appeal panels to take account of action taken to assess a child and to meet any assessed needs in their deliberations. Two reports of the late 1990s found that approximately 90 per cent of excluded children presented with special educational needs.
Clearly, as we have been hearing, many excluded children are not having their special educational needs recognised while at school. There is a dearth of educational psychologists—to which the Minister alluded earlier—to provide the statutory assessment for special educational needs, but it is possible for certain specialist teachers to provide less formal assessments and, following that, to increase resources to meet the recognised need. Again, the Minister mentioned earlier the recent increased investment in learning support units and behaviour support units.
The final paragraph of my amendment addresses concern that has been expressed about dissemination of information. The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, covered the point adequately. The Bill does away with a statutory duty on head teachers to advise parents of excluded children of the existence of, for example, the Advisory Centre of Education. That paragraph would ensure that the parent or carer received adequate information.
I turn to Amendment No. 98D, which is similar to the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas. In Committee, the Minister spoke of the need for schools to communicate with parents and said:
- "legislation must be in place to secure the key rights and duties of all parties".—[Official Report, 23/5/02; col. 952.]
Also, following concern expressed by the Minister in Committee that governors may be over-taxed—again, the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, approached the problem in a different way—the amendment allows the term of exclusion that would trigger the right to make representations to be determined by regulation. Exclusions can have a significant impact on the direction that a child's life takes, as the noble
Baroness, Lady Blatch, pointed out. If the Minister rejects our amendments, how is she to recognise the gravity of the situation?
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, we on these Benches thoroughly support this group of amendments. They concern an important issue that society needs to think about very carefully.
Baroness Howe of Idlicote: My Lords, I support this group of amendments, in particular Amendment No. 98C which has been tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas. Quite apart from the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Blatch, about the need for assessment—which is clearly very important—as early as possible to save the other horrors which occur all too often in prison cells, there is the important aspect of human rights legislation. It will be increasingly important that visible and transparent ways of ensuring that everything has been made available to individuals who are likely to be disadvantaged are written into legislation. On that point, as well as for the more humanitarian reasons, I strongly support the amendments.
Baroness Ashton of Upholland: My Lords, perhaps I may begin by rather bizarrely referring back to the previous amendments. I want to clear up the issue of whether or not they referred to nursery schools. The amendments I moved earlier introduced a new heading within the schedule. The amendments moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, would have come after that heading. That is why, at first glance, it looked as though we were referring to nursery schools, but we were not. The noble Baroness was right in what she did. I apologise for this but I thought that it was worth dealing with that issue straightaway.
Let me deal, first, with Amendments Nos. 98A and 98E. I sympathise with the sentiments that lie behind the amendments. Noble Lords will know from the conversations that we have had outside the Chamber that I am constantly looking for areas that we need to cover in legislation. We are talking about issues of policy and guidance, and it is in that spirit that I shall address the amendments.
I take these issues extremely seriously. As noble Lords will know, within the department it is one of my policy areas. I wish to clear up the issue of whether or not the amendments are appropriate and get the facts out of the way.
Discipline committees and independent appeals panels must consider two simple questions: whether the pupil did what it is said that he did that prompted the exclusion; and, if it is concluded that the pupil did, whether permanent exclusion is a reasonable response to the pupil's behaviour. That is the essence of what we are asking our appeals panels to do.
The current guidance on exclusions already makes it clear that, other than in exceptional circumstances—I repeat, other than in exceptional circumstances—schools should avoid permanently excluding pupils with statements of special educational needs. It also requires head teachers to say, when reporting
exclusions to discipline committees and education authorities, whether the pupil has a statement or is on the special educational needs code of practice. I believe therefore that special educational needs is being taken into account appropriately in these matters and that any further detail on exclusions in the context of special educational needs is best left to the additional guidance that we wish to give.I am happy to give noble Lords an assurance that I shall look again with my department and my officials to ensure that the guidance is as clear as possible on that point. I am always ready to discuss the detail of the guidance with noble Lords and to seek their views and advice on it.
The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, referred to the recent figures in regard to the issue of permanent exclusions. In Committee, I said that we had gone down from 6.1 times more likely to be excluded to three. That is also a reduction from 18 per cent of the total number of excluded children to 8 per cent. I want to make it absolutely clear that the figures are not as low as we would like, but, as I said in Committee, they are moving in the right direction. We are checking with education authorities that that is the real situation. We are beginning to see the effects of the drive to reduce exclusions and the measures that we have put in place to improve the arrangements for identification and for making appropriate provision for children with special educational needs. I am the first to say—and the Government would be behind me in saying—that we are not there yet. We have not finished the task. But in the way in which one looks for real measures to demonstrate achievement, I am pleased that we may be beginning to see that. I shall, of course, keep noble Lords informed as we delve into the figures and make sure that that is indeed the case.
I also believe that the wide range of practical steps we are taking to support schools and education authorities in building pupils' social and emotional competence and in improving behaviour in schools will have a positive effect in reducing exclusions. I am thinking of the 1,000 on-site learning support units that we have set up; the 3,500 learning mentors working to keep vulnerable children in school and on track with their learning; the new multi-agency behaviour and education support teams that we are piloting in 34 areas; and the role of the Connexions service. What I want to say more than anything is that I believe that we have the right approach in order to be able to build on this work. It is that approach that I want to champion as the way in which we should take matters forward rather than the need to change statute.
In relation to Amendment No. 98E, head teachers are already required to provide the name of an officer of the local education authority who can give advice and the telephone number of the Advisory Centre for Education's exclusions helpline. I acknowledge the valuable work that ACE does. I know that my officials are always happy to discuss with the centre the feasibility of additional advice lines and indeed have had such discussions. We remain committed to
keeping the service level under review so that we can ensure that all parents who need ACE's advice have access to its service.From January 2002, local education authorities have been required by law to arrange for the parents of children with special educational needs to be provided with advice and information relating to special educational needs and to make arrangements for resolving disagreements between schools and parents and the local education authority, including the appointment of independent persons to facilitate the avoidance or resolution of disagreements. Local education authorities must make these arrangements widely known to parents, head teachers, proprietors of schools in their area and any others whom they consider appropriate. I believe that these arrangements are beginning to have an effect and that they will prove to be very effective in providing support for parents.
The approach I want to take is through guidance and through the work that we are doing—building on what we are beginning to see. I hope that in the light of my reassurances, the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, and the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, will not press their amendments.
I now turn to Amendments Nos. 98C and 98D. Existing subsection (3)(a) of Clause 49 already places a duty on the Secretary of State to make regulations requiring prescribed persons—which will include the parents of an excluded pupil—to be given prescribed information relating to any exclusion. Subsection (3)(a) is broad enough to encompass the matters which are the substance of the noble Lord's amendment. I can assure both noble Lords that the period of the exclusion, the reasons for the exclusion, and the parent's right to make representations will certainly feature in the regulations that we make under subsection (3)(a).
I say to the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, that there is no difference in legal effect between primary and secondary legislation. Therefore, I believe that there is nothing here that would lower the status of these rights. They will have the same force.
Similarly, the existing subsection (3)(c) of Clause 49 already places a duty on the Secretary of State to make regulations requiring local education authorities to make arrangements for the relevant person, including the parent of an excluded pupil, to appeal against the decision of a discipline committee not to reinstate a pupil who has been permanently excluded. I hope that the noble Lord will be able to accept those reassurances and that, in the spirit of what I have said, he will feel able to withdraw the amendment.
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