Call to end exclusions for care-experienced pupils in North Ayrshire

A motion was proposed ahead of last week's final full council meeting of the year calling for an equality impact assessment to be undertaken with a view to scrapping the punishment for those pupils.

Labour's Irvine South Councillor Robert Foster said being excluded is the "biggest hurdle these children face to achieving in school" and urged elected members not to break The Promise - the plan promoted by the Scottish Government to protect vulnerable young people and help them realise their full potential.

However, an amendment put forward by the SNP's Irvine West Councillor Shaun Macaulay defeated the motion by 22 votes to nine.

Cllr Foster told the December 14 meeting: "Exclusions are damaging to a child's health, damaging to their wellbeing, they're reactionary, they don't work, they're ineffective, and they are disproportionately used against the children who are in our care, the ones that we've got a duty to look after.

"What do members think happens when we exclude a care-experienced child from school? We're telling that child that they're not our problem, we're sending them back to potentially unsafe, dangerous environments, instead of wrapping them in support five days a week where we can ensure they're safe during the school hours.

Councillor Robert Foster (Image: North Ayrshire Council)

"Care-experienced pupils in North Ayrshire make up less than four per cent of the pupils in our schools but they account for 25 per cent of all formal exclusions and 29 per cent of all days lost to exclusions in North Ayrshire, and that's before you add in informal exclusions and short timetables.

"It isn't an exaggeration to say that exclusions are having a devastating effect on the attainment, the health, and the life chances of the children in our care.

"We can't be the first council to introduce this policy, as many others have beaten us to it, but we should implement this as soon as we possibly can."

Cllr Macaulay - who said that North Ayrshire actually has the lowest exclusion rates of care-experienced young people in all of Scotland - stated that whilst he did agree with the ambition of the motion, he did not think that this "blanket approach is the best way to realise this ambition".

He said: "I see this as a journey; I don't think we're quite at the end point yet.

"We need to involve wider partners to make sure that we can all come together and to make sure that it works for North Ayrshire."

Councillor Shaun Macaulay (Image: North Ayrshire Council)

Council leader Marie Burns (SNP, Irvine East) agreed with the assertion that trade unions, head teachers, parents/carers and young people themselves would need to be consulted before the plan progresses.

She added: "There is work to be done on this, we are trying to get to the same end and we would be more than happy to work with Cllr Foster in ensuring that we do achieve that goal, but we just need to make sure that we take everybody with us."

Meanwhile, Conservative Councillor Tom Marshall (North Coast) said: "This motion sets a very poor example that irrespective of the behaviour of a child or young person they will not be excluded from school.

"As a former teacher I think that [exclusion] was a very useful tool to make children aware that they can go so far and any further, they ran the risk of exclusion.

"That drew their behaviour back to an acceptable standard.

"Unions and teachers would be aghast at the fact that yet again one means of controlling sometimes violent pupils is going to be removed."

The amendment was carried and the council agreed that all staff remained committed to: reducing exclusions and the causes of exclusions (particularly of care-experienced young people), and supporting care-experienced young people in a trauma informed, nurturing way that allowed positive relationships to develop across the school community.