(UK) 97% of elem school students expelled have special needs;

July 11, 2025, CYPN: Factors behind rise in suspensions and exclusions 

The news that the number of primary school exclusions and suspensions has now reached over 106,000 for the first time sadly hasn’t surprised us at Chance UK, as we work with children and families facing that reality every day.

It is easy to focus on the number, but it is the lives and stories of these young children and families that can too easily get lost. So, what is going on for these children?

Growing up has never been easy. But this generation of children are growing up in the shadow of Covid, which affected their early childhood, and robbed them of the opportunity to develop socially. Every day we see families under extreme strain; facing housing insecurity, worries for food, a bereavement; the emotional burden that children are carrying is huge and can’t be ignored. We wouldn’t ask our adult colleagues to perform their best at work if we knew they had all of that going on - so how can we ask that from a six-year-old child?

Some of the most vulnerable children in our classrooms need support, especially those with special educational needs and disabilities who are disproportionally affected by suspensions and exclusions.

Our own research found that 97% of pupils excluded in primary school had special educational needs. Yet they are faced with impossibly long waiting lists for a diagnosis, care plan and vital support. One family we work with had been waiting for help for years, but it only came once the child had been admitted to hospital. We simply cannot continue to leave these children and families to struggle alone, only getting support when they reach crisis.

We also know that exclusions cannot and should not be the answer. They just pass the problem to another school and the cycle continues. We are now seeing even our youngest children being affected, with the number of exclusions and suspensions for those aged six and under rising to over 35,000. If we have reached a place where five-year-olds are being repeatedly suspended, something clearly isn’t working. Yet the numbers continue going up, and we know the impact can last a lifetime: 90% of children excluded in primary school don’t pass GCSE English and maths.

Schools should be a place of safety, yet for some of the children we support, it has become a place of isolation and rejection. No child wants to be excluded, and no teacher wants to exclude – so what is the solution?

Whilst there are promising signs from the government, we need to make sure that support comes as early as possible. We can’t afford to wait until children are teenagers if they are struggling.

We need ring-fenced funding to support child-led early intervention such as the youth worker mentors that Chance UK provides. This must be accessible to primary school aged pupils who are falling through the gap of funding provision - too old for early years, too young for young people’s support. We need to provide them with the time, space, activities and trusted adults to allow them to navigate and enjoy childhood, to explore who they are, and how they relate to the world around them. We need to support teachers to do their jobs well, with training and funding that can help them spot the signs and support children. And we can’t continue to wait until things get ‘bad enough’ to offer this. Let’s give children a chance and help them have the childhood they deserve.