School Exclusion Reform - Call for Evidence

What is the purpose of this Call for Evidence?

Good behaviour is fundamental to ensuring that all children and young people can learn, thrive and benefit from education. It enables schools to provide calm, safe and supportive environments where pupils feel they belong, engage positively in education, and can learn. Poor behaviour can have serious consequences for pupils, schools and wider communities. For some children and young people, these experiences can result in significant lost learning time and poorer long-term outcomes.

The UK Government's Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving (published in February 2026), recognises the vital role schools play not only in delivering high-quality education, but also in promoting pupil engagement, belonging and participation. It acknowledges the significant work schools already undertake to manage behaviour, address disengagement and support pupils at risk of suspension or permanent exclusion.

As part of the delivery of the Schools White Paper, the Department for Education (DfE) is delivering an ambitious programme of school exclusion reform to help ensure that all pupils can benefit from the opportunities education provides. A central element of this agenda is to promote effective practice and appropriate use of suspensions, while identifying approaches that will help reduce preventable permanent exclusions through earlier intervention.

This Call for Evidence seeks views on the three exclusion reform proposals outlined in the White Paper.

The proposals set out in the Schools White Paper are:

• Internal suspension: introducing a clear, time-limited framework for internal suspension, allowing pupils who have been removed from the classroom for disciplinary reasons to remain on-site and maintain continuity of education, while signalling that suspension is for serious disciplinary reasons.
• Reintegration support partnerships: a process for reintegration following a suspension which will involve a formal meeting leading to an agreed plan with clear responsibilities to help ensure parents play an active part in supporting their child’s reflection and successful reintegration after a suspension.
• Provision of schoolwork during the first 5 days of suspension and permanent exclusion: to minimise disruption to learning and avoid time-consuming catch up, schoolwork is expected to be set and completed during the first five days of a suspension and permanent exclusion.  

We are seeking evidence on how schools use suspensions appropriately as part of effective behaviour management, how pupils can best be supported to remain engaged with education during periods of suspension, and how schools, families and pupils can work together to support successful reintegration and reduce the likelihood of repeated suspensions or permanent exclusions. We are also interested in their impact on different groups of pupils, approaches to parental engagement, barriers to successful reintegration, and effective strategies for supporting reintegration.

We are seeking views from schools, practitioners, academics, parents and other stakeholders on existing practice, implementation challenges and examples of what works well.

Evidence gathered from this Call for Evidence will inform a subsequent consultation on the implementation of the school exclusion reforms.

Who this is for

The following list is not exhaustive:

In education:

• Headteachers
• Teachers
• Academy Trust leaders
• Support staff (including teaching assistants and family liaison officers)
• Designated teachers for looked-after and previously looked-after children
• Designated safeguarding leads and deputy designated safeguarding leads
• Special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCos)
• Mental health leads
• Educational psychologists and speech and language therapists
• Governors and trustees
• Attendance engagement frontline practitioners
• Trade Unions

In the community:

• Parents and carers
• Charities, think tanks and organisations that support pupils at risk of suspension or permanent exclusion

In local authorities and children’s services:

• Social workers
• Directors of children’s services
• Virtual school heads
• School admission leads
• Personal advisors
• Early help workers
• Troubled families’ co-ordinators
• Youth workers
• Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) information advice and support services
• Children missing education (CME) officers
• Heads of attendance and inclusion services
• Heads of SEND assessment and placement teams

The wider community:

• Those undertaking research on internal suspensions, reintegration support partnerships and arrangements to set schoolwork, school behaviour and/or pupils at risk of suspension or permanent exclusion
• Equality and Human Rights groups
• Ofsted
• Office of the Children’s Commissioner 

The questions are intentionally broad to allow for a wide variety of responses reflective of practice. Please only answer questions relevant to your experience. If a question does not apply to you, please enter ‘not applicable’ or ‘N/A’.

In addition, we will engage more widely with key stakeholders across the sector including with children and young people to ensure their voice is captured, to inform this call for evidence.

Issue date:

The Call for Evidence was issued on 15 October 2026 and will run for five weeks.

Enquiries

If you wish to provide evidence in response to this Call for Evidence, you can contact the School Exclusion Team at exclusion.cfe@education.gov.uk.

If your enquiry is related to the DfE e-consultation website or the Call for Evidence process in general, you can contact the DfE Ministerial and Public Communications Division by email: coordinator.consultations@education.gov.uk, telephone: 0370 000 2288 or via the DfE Contact us page.

Additional copies

Additional copies are available electronically and can be downloaded from GOV.UK DfE consultations.

Other ways to respond

If for exceptional reasons, you are unable to use the online system, for example because you use specialist accessibility software that is not compatible with the system, you may request an alternative format of the form.

By email

exclusion.cfe@education.gov.uk

By post

Behaviour Unit, Department for Education

Sanctuary Buildings 

Great Smith Street

London 

SW1P 3BT

Deadline

The Call for Evidence closes on 19 November 2026.