§ Mr. GibbTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the financial consequence is to a secondary school of excluding a pupil. [57499]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe Pupil Retention Grant (PRG) is part of the Social Inclusion: Pupil Support (SIPS) grant which is available to tackle disaffection in schools and to provide education outside school. It is available only to secondary pupils.
PRG has given secondary schools significant additional resources to tackle poor behaviour, while at the same time ensuring that when pupils are excluded LEAs have the resources they need to provide alternative education. In 2001–02, we increased the PRG to £122 million from £100 million in 2000–01. LEAs must allocate the PRG direct to schools.
Where permanent exclusion has taken place, a child will still need to be educated. In these cases the exclusion will trigger the transfer of at least some of the PRG from the school to the LEA as a contribution to the education of that child. The LEA has flexibility about the amount it will seek to transfer back from the school that it negotiates with head teachers. On average, between £3,000—£6,000 will be deducted from the excluded school's budget allocation per excludee.
The LEA can then use the PRG to provide education outside of school and/or support a reintegration package at a new school, helping to ensure that full-time education really does become a reality for excluded children and young people. Schools accepting pupils previously excluded from other schools should therefore benefit from 276W these additional funds. This procedure follows the principle introduced by the last Government of money following the excluded pupil.