Support group blames council policy for exclusions rise

9:41am Wednesday 17th October 2007

By Haydn Lewis

That is the message to council chiefs from Bob Breen chairman of ADDept, the Yorkshire support group for people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

He made his comments after The Press revealed the number of cases of children being booted out of York's secondary schools is set to soar by more than a fifth this year, and blamed council policies for the figures.

The Press reported yesterday that new figures released by City of York Council show the number of permanent exclusions is set to rise from 44 last year to about 53 this year - an increase of 20.5 per cent.

Mr Breen said: "In the past York has had a good track record dealing with cases where children have been diagnosed with ADHD or cases on the autistic spectrum, but there has been a change of officers and that no longer seems to be the case.

"When it comes to excluded kids they are bringing in everybody apart from the families of the children - they never get together and they are always treated in isolation. I read the article in The Press and I just thought: I told you so'. We feel like we are coming up against a brick wall with the council.

"The parents that are struggling and getting their kids kicked out of school are given no opportunity to get together and feed back their experiences to each other and the council."

His comments were supported by Mike Fewster, ADDept's national coordinator, who said: "Nobody's teaching the teachers in York how to handle the problems that many youngsters with ADHD or autistic spectrum children have.

David Ellis, head teacher at York High School, said it was generally Key Stage 3 pupils - 11 to 14-year-olds - who were being excluded.

He said: "Neither the schools nor the local authority want to be excluding pupils if they can avoid it, because it isn't really a satisfactory solution. My own view is that there have been increasing numbers of young people in mainstream school provision now that wouldn't have been in the past and they find it increasingly difficult to cope.

"I think you'll find the increase in exclusions is mainly among younger pupils."

Pete Dwyer, the council's director of Learning, Culture and Children's Services, said: "In York, some children are able to flourish in a mainstream environment, with support. Others benefit from being placed within a specialist Enhanced Resource Provision (ERP) within a mainstream school.

"A very small minority need highly-specialised placements in residential placements out of the city."

He said: "York has been proactive in developing its own range of specialist and mainstream provision, which includes autism-specific facilities at Hob Moor Oaks and Applefields Special Schools and a highly successful Enhanced Resource Provision for secondary age pupils at Fulford School."