The elusive Sue Baldwin, Regional Schools Commissioner, to appear in front of councillors, for live-streamed debate likely to focus on exclusions

No longer the invisible woman? Sue Baldwin to appear in front of councillors next week

Sue Baldwin, the often-elusive Regional Schools Commissioner for the East of England, is finally to appear before councillors in Norfolk, where the high rate of exclusions in the county is likely to be on the agenda, Education Uncovered understands.

Members, across all parties, of the Conservative-controlled council have been speaking of the need for an appearance by Baldwin to answer questions on exclusions since 2018, this website understands. Finally, the DfE civil servant, who oversees academies across 15 local authority areas, will appear before the committee next Tuesday (March 17^th).

Norfolk has been drawing headlines for its rate of exclusions in recent years. In 2018, the-then MP for North Norfolk, Norman Lamb, told Parliament that the number in the county was “shockingly high”.

The previous year, 2016-17, there had been 45 permanent exclusions from state-funded Norfolk primary schools and 157 from secondary schools, the Eastern Daily Press reported. This meant that the county contributed more than a quarter of the permanent exclusions across the whole of the East of England, which Baldwin’s sprawling zone includes. Over this period, there were also more than 5,000 fixed period exclusions in the county.