End the culture of exclusion in schools, report urges

Anne Longfield CBE, Chair of the Commission on Young Lives, has published the Commission on Young Lives' final report, 'Hidden in Plain Sight: A national plan of action to support vulnerable teenagers to succeed and to protect them from adversity, exploitation and harm'.

The Commission's report proposes a wide range of recommendations to government, schools, the police, and others to tackle the deep-rooted problems in the children's social care, education, family support, children's mental health, and criminal justice systems.

The Commission proposes a new national action plan to protect those most at risk of exploitation and harm and to support all young people to leave education with improved life chances.

Its recommendations for schools include encouraging a new era of inclusive education, ending the culture of exclusion in schools, and helping all children to succeed. It wants primary schools to get support to end exclusions in all primaries by 2024 and to extend SEN support. The report calls for a greater focus on nurture and therapeutic support for vulnerable children, a new 'inclusion measure' to inform Ofsted judgements, and the scrapping of Pupil Referral Units, with specialist provision established in and around schools instead.

The report also wants all school buildings to open before and after school, at weekends and during holidays, to provide safe and appealing places for teenagers, staffed by community groups, youth practitioners and volunteers and financed by funds from dormant bank accounts and National Lottery community funding.