Mairi Ann Cullen

What happens to pupils permanently excluded from special schools and pupil referral units in England

There is widespread consensus in the research and policy‐related literature over the last decade that young people who have been permanently excluded from school are at a far greater risk of a variety of negative outcomes than young people who have not had this experience. These negative outcomes include prolonged periods out of education and/or employment; poor mental and physical health; involvement in crime; and homelessness. This article presents evidence from a small‐scale qualitative study of destinations and outcomes post‐exclusion for a group of young people considered to be at particular risk of such negative outcomes: namely, those who have been permanently excluded from special schools or Pupil Referral Units (now known as short‐stay schools). The specific focus of this paper is on the 24 young people’s educational trajectories pre‐ and post‐exclusion; the reasons for their exclusion from school; and on what forms of alternative provision were available to them after their permanent exclusion.

Exclusion from school : a view from scotland of policy and practice

This paper reports research on the nature and extent of exclusion from school in Scotland 1994-6. The research involved: documentary analysis of local authority policies on exclusion, supplemented by telephone interviews with officials responsible for the operation of policy; a survey of 176 headteachers; an analysis of information about 2,710 excluded pupils; and case studies of eight secondary and four primary schools. A wide variation in local authority policy was found although most authorities emphasized exclusion as a last resort. Most exclusions were short term with pupils returning to their original school but a significant number of pupils lost more that a weeks schooling and about 30 per cent had been excluded more than once. Schools with similar characteristics varied markedly in their exclusion rates and this could largely be explained by their different ethos. Key elements in understanding differences in ethos were beliefs about the purpose of schools, the curriculum on offer, school relations with the outside world and decision making about exclusion. These findings are placed in the context both of research on exclusions in England and of current policy concerns with social exclusion.

Supporting fathers to engage with their children’s learning and education: an under‐developed aspect of the Parent Support Adviser pilot

The Parent Support Adviser (PSA) role, piloted in 2006-2008 in 20 Local Authorities (LAs) in England, offered preventative and early intervention support to families where there were concerns about children‟s school attendance or behaviour. Overall, this was a highly successful initiative in terms of supporting parental engagement with their children‟s schools. However, this article presents evidence drawn from 162 interviews (with PSAs, their line managers and coordinators in 12 case study LAs) showing that there was one key area in the PSA pilot that was less successful – the engagement of fathers. The article examines views about how to engage fathers and of the barriers explaining the overall absence of fathers from the PSA project. It highlights the dissonance between policy and practitioner guidance on the one hand and practice on the other with regard to the relative failure to engage fathers with this important initiative.

Schools' Perceptions of Support Services for Special Educational Needs

The NFER recently undertook a research project examining the impact of delegation on LEA support services for special educational needs. This article reports data from one strand of the research – the way in which staff in schools responded to external support for pupils with special educational needs. Responses were varied and depended to a large extent on whether teachers saw clear benefits either to themselves or to the pupils about whom they were concerned (judged in terms of visible difference in performance within the classroom). Reference is made to the difference in ways in which support staff were managed in schools. Data suggested that collaborative work between mainstream staff and visiting support staff was not ensured in all circumstances; where it was weak, it was the pupil who was disadvantaged.

‘I'm just there to ease the burden’: the parent support adviser role in English schools and the question of emotional labour

In 2005, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) announced a £40 million investment in a new school support worker role, the Parent Support Adviser (PSA), for 20 English Local Authorities (LAs). A pilot project ran from 2006-08, and resulted in the establishment of 717 PSAs in 1,167 schools. The national evaluation of the project forms the evidential basis of this paper, with interviews conducted with 69 PSAs, 85 PSA line managers, and 105 parents, and a data base recording casework with nearly 21,000 parents. This paper focuses on the nature of the PSA role as the first centrally funded parent support role in English schools. The theoretical framework provided by the concept of ‘emotional labour’, and the development of the concept represented by the 4Ps typology, provides the conceptual structure. This paper argues that although the characteristics of the PSA role appear to place it within the category of work requiring emotional labour, PSAs, and parents, regard that aspect of the role in a positive light. For the PSAs, there was little evidence that emotional labour necessary for the role of PSA led to dissonance between role and worker, or alienation from the product of PSA labour.

LEA support services for special educational needs provision and management

The National Foundation for Educational Research recently undertook research on the impact of delegation on local authority support services for special educational needs. This paper presents data on the provision offered by these services and the way in which they are managed. In particular, it examines how support is targeted, the extent and profile of service staff, mechanisms for the referral of pupils for support from the services, management structure, staff deployment and the professional development of service staff, and service monitoring, review and evaluation. Ways in which support services have developed in the 1990s, and their challenges for the next decade in the light of developments in the governance of education and the local policy context, are discussed.