Silence from current Children’s Commissioner on school exclusions speaks volumes?

There was extensive coverage last week of a proposal, from a task force led by the former children’s commissioner for England, for a ban on permanent exclusions from primary schools.

The move had been put forward in a report from the Commission on Young Lives, headed by Anne Longfield, who was children’s commissioner from 2015 until last year.

Exclusions had previously been a concern for both Longfield, who had argued in a report published in 2019 that they should be used only as a “last resort,” and by Longfield’s predecessor Dame Maggie Atkinson, who published successive reports on the issue, highlighting what she said were illegal exclusions.

But where is the current Schools Commissioner on this? It was noticeable that Dame Rachel de Souza, Longfield’s successor as the current incumbent, as far as I can see was not quoted in the media on the issue.

Indeed, when this website put in a request for comment last week, asking de Souza’s office if she had any response on the primary exclusions ban proposal, or indeed on any of the Longfield commission’s conclusions on exclusion, there was no reply. (In case readers wonder if this is simply a product of de Souza’s office’s reluctance to talk to me, given previous reporting, I have had replies from her office in the recent past).