Written Statement - Update on progress on the Action Plan responding to the National Behaviour and Attendance Review (nbar)

‘Behaving and Attending’, the action plan responding to the National Behaviour and Attendance Review (NBAR) was published in March 2009. I want to set out the significant progress that we have made on the actions in the Plan.

Behaviour and attendance are an integral part of our broader approach to the School Effectiveness Framework.  Within that context, training and development are key areas.  In particular, behaviour management needs to be integrated explicitly into the new arrangements for Induction and Early Professional Development for newly qualified teachers and newly appointed school support staff.  We will shortly begin working in partnership with practitioners and key stakeholders to ensure that new practitioners' skills in behaviour management are embedded at the earliest stages of their career.

It is important that schools and teachers have the powers to ensure that schools are safe and calm learning environments. For this reason, at the end of October 2010, we will be commencing provisions on behaviour and discipline contained in the Education and Inspections Act 2006.  We shall issue accompanying guidance, including comprehensive material on the use of reasonable force. The powers to be commenced include:

• a requirement for head teachers to consult with pupils and staff working at the school in developing their behaviour policy;
• a power for schools to discipline pupils and impose sanctions;
• re-enactment of earlier powers relating to the reasonable use of force by  school staff to prevent pupils from committing an offence; causing personal injury to, or damage to the property of, any person (including the pupil himself); or prejudicing the maintenance of good order and discipline at the school, whether during a teaching session or otherwise
• new scope on the use of detention;
• statutory defence for school staff confiscating pupils’ property;
• extension of the use of Parenting Orders and Parenting Contracts; and
• head teachers to be required to request parents of excluded pupils to attend a reintegration interview.

We had previously commenced the following powers in January 2010:

• schools to have a power to regulate the behaviour of pupils off school premises;
• schools’ behaviour policies to require pupils to comply with the Travel Behaviour Code and to include measures to secure pupils completing tasks assigned to them.

These provisions will help clarify what teachers and other school staff are able to do to maintain positive behaviour and will introduce new duties on schools. At the same time we shall introduce a new power for schools to search pupils for weapons, where they have reasonable suspicion.

Developing new ways of working is key to our approach and that is why, in partnership with local authorities, we have established 9 pilot projects to explore and test the effectiveness of innovative approaches on 3 key areas identified in the NBAR Report:

• early assessment of need and appropriate intervention;
• improving multi-agency working to assist the reintegration of pupils from education otherwise than at schools into mainstream and special schools; and
• improving the links between pupil referral units (PRUs) and schools, building on the work of the Unlocking the Potential project.

Several recommendations in the NBAR report highlighted the importance of early intervention. To this end we have developed a number of guidance documents for use by practitioners, which include:

• guidance on the principles and practice of setting up, developing and running a nurture group;
• best practice guidance on the effective use of managed moves.
• revision of the Behaviour Management Handbook for secondary schools with a new version for primary school teachers currently in production; and
• making Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning available bilingually for primary and secondary schools.

We have undertaken a significant body of work to support schools and local authorities in improving attendance:

• new attendance codes have been introduced across Wales in all our maintained primary and secondary schools for use from September 2010;
• new attendance code data will help form the basis of the absence data included in the 2011-2012 All Wales Core Data packs; and
• an All-Wales Attendance Framework for use by the Education Welfare Service has been developed in conjunction with local authorities.

Behaving and Attending is one of the drivers in reducing our numbers of young people who are not in education, employment or training.  As part of a One Wales Commitment to undertake an inquiry into disengagement from learning, the Welsh Assembly commissioned a research project which drew on the personal experience of 11-16 year olds who had become disengaged from learning. This was published in July 2010 and will inform our future approach to reducing the number of these young people.

Implementing the Plan involves continuing engagement with key partners throughout Wales, for example:

• working with SNAP Cymru and Barnardo’s Cymru on research into illegal exclusions, which explicitly looks at the experience of families who have experienced illegal exclusions and which provides valuable information for policy development; and
• working with local authorities and Estyn to scope out good practice for improved support and monitoring of elective home education as part of a larger review of Education Otherwise Than at School