Member

Finally, I come to the question of off-rolling. I very much agree with my noble friend Lord Addington. We had never really heard the phrase off-rolling until we started developing academies. It cannot be right that schools choose to take pupils off their roll, not because they were permanently excluded or temporarily excluded, but because they had special needs and the school decided it could not cope. Maybe they had learning difficulties and the school decided it could not cope. Maybe it decided it could not cope because the pupils had behavioural difficulties. That is not a way to have schooling in our society. Since this matter has been raised, academies have realised that it is an issue and off-rolling has become less prevalent. I am absolutely delighted about that, but there is no harm in making sure that this practice goes once and for all.