Abstract:
In England, there is growing concern around the links between school exclusion and extra-familial harm, such as child criminal exploitation and youth violence, with research suggesting that young people are being excluded from school for reasons that are strongly associated to their experiences of extra-familial harm. In this talk, I will put forward an argument for rethinking school exclusion from a safeguarding lens. I will begin by presenting a review of existing literature and policy, before drawing on interview data from school staff and local authority officers collected as part of my DPhil (PhD) research on the enactment of school exclusion policy in England. I will focus and reflect on how safeguarding concerns related to extra-familial harm are taken into consideration in school exclusion decision making, how issues around extra-familial harm and school exclusion are understood by practitioners working in education and children’s social care, the ways in which agencies may be able to work together to prevent harm and avoid the use of school exclusion, and the implications for policy both nationally and internationally.