PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Pupil Exclusions (18 January 2017)

Good mental health and wellbeing are a priority for the Department. We want all our children to fulfil their potential and we want to tackle the burning injustice of mental health problems, so that future generations can develop into resilient, confident adults, equipped to go as far as their talents will take them. Attainment is best supported if children have good mental health.

Schools and colleges have an important role to play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people, through the development of approaches that suit the particular needs of their pupils. We are currently conducting a nationally representative survey of schools and colleges about what they offer to support the mental health of their pupils and students. The results should be available in the Spring and will provide national estimates of the proportion of schools and colleges which make different types of provision available to support the mental health of their pupils and students.

We do not have evidence of the effect of such provision on exclusions, and there is a complex range of factors that can lead to exclusion. It is important that where issues arise the individual circumstances of each child are considered by the school. Statutory guidance on exclusions is clear that the decision to exclude a pupil must be lawful, reasonable and fair. Early intervention to address underlying causes of disruptive behaviour, should include an assessment of whether appropriate provision is in place to support any SEN or disability that the pupil may have. Head teachers should also consider the use of multi-agency assessment for pupils who demonstrate persistant disruptive behaviour. Such assessments may pick up unidentified special educational needs but the scope of the assessment could go further, for example, by seeking to identify mental health or family problems.

It is for schools to decide what further support to provide where a pupils has emerging issues, but we have taken steps to support them in doing so. We have published a blueprint for school counselling services which provides schools with practical, evidence-based advice, informed by schools and counselling experts, on how to deliver high quality school-based counselling: www.gov.uk/government/publications/counselling-in-schools.

To improve links with specialist services the Department worked with NHS England on a £3million pilot to provide joint training to schools and mental health staff to operate as single points of contact. This year we will be extending the pilot to up to 1200 schools across 20 clinical commissioning group areas to test whether the improvements in knowledge, identification and referral from the initial pilot can be delivered on a larger scale.