SCN0574

Written evidence from Parental Submission 177

1. I would like to submit my written thoughts on the use of unlawful/illegal exclusions within secondary schools; particularly in around year 9 whereby disabled pupils are effectively off rolled and forced out of their schools which is commonly reported on and is known as “cleansing”.

2. My eldest son who has a diagnosis of Autism has been subject to two unlawful exclusions during his time at secondary school, [school] in [local authority].

3. One of the two exclusions lasted over 3 ½ months during his first GCSE year. Sadly, despite the fact my son had an EHCP [local authority] constantly refused to provide any form of Alternative Provision despite their duty to do so; as stated in the Education Act (1996). I was repeatedly told by the Local Authority that it was the schools duty to provide my son with an education as he was still on roll at the school. However, the head teacher repeatedly told me my son could not be in school.

4. These unlawful exclusions arose after I made complaints about two members of staff conduct towards my son which was discriminatory and cruel conduct. It appeared many members of staff were totally unaware of my child’s Education, Health and Care Plan and even lacked a basic understanding of Autism.

5. The head teacher failed to follow the school’s complaints procedures and covered up his own misconduct at every opportunity. Even when his own behaviour towards our son had been uncovered by the Board of Governors they took no action and backed the head teacher at every opportunity. It appeared they were very biased and did not understand the Equality Act (2010) and the duties this placed on schools or what a unlawful exclusion was.

6. I have copies of falsified registration documents which shows clear maladministration and manipulation of my son’s attendance records during the 3 ½ months he was subject to the unlawful exclusion.

7. I have been to every organisation to try and get the head teacher held to account for what I am led to believe is an illegal/unlawful act. This includes, exhausting the school’s complaints procedures, complaining to my Local Authority and the Department for Education; having 3 qualifying complaints with Ofsted in less than 9 months, an out of court agreement at SENDist; and triggering an investigation by the National College of Teaching and Leadership.

8. However, it appears there is no agency willing to act over this conduct. This head teacher has clearly broken the law and damaged my child’s mental health enormously and the best I have manged to get is an apology letter via an out of court agreement which cost our family thousands of pounds at SENDist to which the head teacher wrote “I am sorry, I should have done more to help you come back to school sooner”. Even after the tribunal we had to wait another three months before we received this apology letter.

9. This is not good enough and there appears to be no form of punishment to deter head teacher’s from breaking the law and illegally excluding children. It appears in fact that head teacher’s may be rewarded particularly from Ofsted when they off roll/ illegally exclude children as it improves the league tables (particularly whereby SEND pupils have learning difficulties as my child does) and prevents them being criticised for having official high exclusion numbers. Which again Ofsted would be highly critical of.

10. I am very angry and disappointed by the actions of Ofsted. I was led to believe that they would take my concerns further and I hoped that my concerns over illegal exclusions would trigger an inspection of this school. I was shocked to find that it did not. Furthermore, I was told that Ofsted would consider my complaints at the “evidence-based inspection” and told that they “take my complaints seriously”.

11. In February 2018 the school had a short one-day inspection by Ofsted.

12. On the day of the inspection I was informed by a fellow parent that they had received notification the previous day that Ofsted would be inspecting the school. I was not informed of this by the school- despite my contact details being up to date. I would argue that school’s purposefully target the parents they wish to inform of such inspections and leave out the parents who have had negative experiences of the school.

13. On the day of the inspection I called the lead inspector; [name]. I wanted to ensure she had access to all three complaints and she assured me she did. Then after all these months of waiting she told me “by the way you do know Ofsted don’t deal with complaints”. This left me stunned. I was then rushed off the telephone as she only had a few minutes before reconvening with the other inspector and the leadership team to discuss their findings from the inspection.

14. From this on reflection I am left with the conclusion that Ofsted are creating what I describe as “monster headteachers”. We all know one bad Ofsted can spell the end of a head teachers career, thus rather than this happen the head teachers who lack morals are far more likely to use unlawful exclusions and falsify the attendance registers to improve their statistics.

15. I have heard of children with additional needs in this school being asked to stay at home during inspection days back in 2014- during their last full inspection.

16. This school also has a reputation for cleansing children with SEND out of the school in Year 9. The psychological damage this causes children is too difficult to describe. This treatment can only be identified as organisational abuse.

17. I hope that moving forwards all schools receive unannounced Ofsted inspections so there can be no way to hide some children from site.

18. Even more so I feel that there needs to be a very clear line of accountability when it comes to illegal/unlawful exclusions. In the past government have referred to the fact they feel Ofsted should be the organisation to do this. Yet clearly even when there is clear evidence Ofsted completely fail to act.

19. It needs to be recognised that the illegal exclusion of children with additional needs will only stop when there is a punishment in place to prevent head teachers becoming offenders of this type of practice. If it is an illegal act it should carry a serious punishment otherwise this will continue. In the past I have heard of the Children’s Commissioner asking for fines to be placed on schools if they are found to be illegally excluding children. However, this would be unfair to the children as school budgets are already stretched. I believe a head teacher found to be illegally excluding children should be struck off the teaching register and face a prison sentence. This would send a clear message that this illegal practice is not acceptable, that it can ruin the lives of our most vulnerable children and that it will not be tolerated or go unpunished any longer.

20. I am happy for the above to be published and am happy to share all the evidence I have.

June 2018