Data, data everywhere – but not all the numbers that count? Mapping alternative provisions for students excluded from school

Abstract

It is now mandatory for English schools to ensure that young people, under 16 years of age, who are excluded from school are placed in an education and training programme within 12 days. The programme must be at least half time, and should offer a meaningful and balanced curriculum. The Every Child Matters agenda also suggests that schools must coordinate services with other agencies to ensure that young people deemed ‘at risk’ are assisted to stay in mainstream schooling. Our research project examined the educational and training provisions for permanently excluded pupils, and young people likely to be permanently excluded, across two Midlands counties. The research focus – who gets what – is fundamental to questions of equity, access and participation. The findings suggest that, despite some very good local practices and highly skilled practitioners, there is a lack of coordinated data about which programmes exist and who attends, and a proliferation of programmes with varying funding sources, costs, entry practices, and qualifications. It is argued that this situation bodes poorly for monitoring and for ensuring the entitlement to education and training of those young people who are most marginalised by and through their schooling. However, we are concerned about the possibilities for further intensification of staff work and increased surveillance on young people if our recommendations for equity monitoring and better quality control were to go ahead.

Keywords:

• equity
• data
• exclusion

Notes

1. For full guidance on times of exclusion, see http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/behaviour/exclusion/guidance/part7/. From February 2007 schools are also obligated to provide an educational programme on the sixth day of exclusion.

2. The DfES website states that ‘Full time’ means supervised education equivalent to that provided by mainstream schools in the area and will be different for each Key Stage (KS). The recommended minimum hours per week of taught time are: KS1, 21 hours; KS2, 23.5 hours; KS3/4, 24 hours; and KS4 (Y11), 25 hours.

3. See http://www.dfes.gov.uk/14-19/dsp_stakeholders.cfm?page_id=1/.

4. For details of this multi‐agency intervention, see http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/.

5. The authors will produce a further paper to explicate these discourses and their effects.

6. England has a range of qualification authorities in addition to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), which offers GCSE and A‐Levels in schools. These authorities offer awards that range from Duke of Edinburgh to an array of vocational and recreational training certificates designed to meet the national qualification framework.