Permanent exclusion from school usually marks the end of a long struggle to keep a child in mainstream education. Unfortunately, it often also marks the beginning of a life of unemployment, poor health and crime. In addition to the inestimable/immeasurable costs suffered by the child, IPPR’s recent comprehensive study into school exclusions estimates that each cohort of excluded pupils goes on to cost the public purse an additional £2.1 billion, in benefits, healthcare and criminal justice costs.
Unsurprisingly, the impact on employment prospects is significant and immediate. An excluded child is nine times more likely than their non-excluded peers to be NEET (not in sustained employment, education or training) six months after their GCSEs. A 2014 Department for Education report found a marginal return of £150,000 over a life-time, just for getting two good GCSEs compared to getting none at all. Most excluded children don’t even sit two GCSEs.
However, our report also explains that this is likely to be a gross under-estimate. Large numbers of children are effectively excluded from school, but do not appear in official statistics. This happens via a combination of informal exclusions and some illegal practices, meaning the total number of excluded children could be many times that officially recorded.
But, of course, the act of permanent exclusion isn’t responsible for the extent of negative outcomes for excluded children. In most instances, the pupils who reach this stage are already behind their peers, with many (77 per cent) classified as having a special educational need or disability. They are disproportionately likely to have grown up in poverty, to have an unstable home life and to be suffering mental health problems. Often, the last resort of exclusion is used if a child is dangerous to other pupils in their school.
