Children and young people at risk of exclusion

A child or young person can only be excluded from school in response to a serious breach or persistent breaches of the school’s behaviour policy; and where allowing the pupil to remain in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of the pupil or others in the school.

Only a headteacher can make the decision to exclude.

If a pupil has had a number of fixed term exclusions in a period of 2 terms, school is advised to email the Fair Access Team - fairaccess@westsussex.gov.uk.

West Sussex Fair Access Team will guide the school through the Graduated Approach, to ensure that school has considered how to meet need. The expectation is that school will have followed the cycle of Assess, Plan, Do, Review, giving each cycle some time to embed the support and monitor impact.

Schools will be expected to have already explored:

• OAIP document
• discuss pupil at CARM
• Personal Support Plan
• support from specialist services if pupil is from a vulnerable group (EMT, AS, Virtual school, sensory team, CMHLS, social services, and so on)
• advice from LBAT or SCT
• family support, for example, Early Help Plan

Fair Access may be able to signpost to additional therapeutic agencies or support a referral to the West Sussex Alternative Provision College (WSAPC) Inclusion Team, who can offer a range of support strategies and direct working with the pupil.

Should there be little impact from these strategies, it is likely that the pupil should be considered for an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) request and a conversation with an education psychologist (EP).

If a child is at risk of exclusion who already has an EHCP, conversations with SENAT to explore appropriate ways of meeting needs must be had in the first instance and an Emergency Annual Review called to review support and provision and find alternatives to exclusion.