Edward Timpson’s review of school exclusion was supposed to be published before Christmas. Five months later and we finally have the report – but I am concerned that many of the recommendations will not be acted on until the Government commits further resources to this important issue.

In our interim report, the Youth Violence Commission noted the clear link between school exclusions and vulnerability/propensity to youth violence. We proposed an aspiration of zero exclusions from mainstream education, and a reallocation of funding from Pupil Referral Units to mainstream schools to help achieve this.

I asked Damian Hinds about the Government’s plans to tackle off-rolling, as well as asking his department to publish the list of schools with the highest number of permanent exclusions. I hope to meet with Nick Gibb MP, Minister for School Standards, to discuss this further soon.