Responding to a new report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) which found that students who have been suspended from secondary school are twice as likely to be out of education, employment or training as young adults, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“Challenging and severely disruptive behaviour is a symptom of often deep-rooted challenges in children’s lives, and when these are not addressed it is sadly not surprising that this can harm their life chances.

“Schools work hard to support pupils - only using suspensions and exclusions where absolutely necessary for the safety and wellbeing of all children - but they cannot do this alone.

“The last government did not invest nearly enough in addressing the causes of issues in the lives of children and their families. Vital services like children’s social care, CAMHS, and specialist behaviour support teams which enable schools to access specialist help, need to be rebuilt, and the crisis in special educational needs provision must be tackled.

“It is positive that the new government has promised to begin confronting some of these wider social issues, including the vital work of tackling child poverty, many of which were not acknowledged by previous administrations, let alone prioritised.”