“Excluding kids from access to education can never be the right
answer”, says Patrick Regan, OBE.
Patrick Regan was speaking at the Tackling Educational Failure Conference hosted by the urban youth charity,
XLP, and the political think tank, the Centre for Social Justice, at All Hallows-on-the-Wall in London on 2nd May
2013. Bringing together teachers, policy makers, academy organizations, policy makers, youth workers and
young people, the panel and those in the audience explored the root causes of education failure, the
staggering costs and tragic consequences of failing in education, and how to reimagine an education system
where exclusion is not needed.
Patrick Regan, founder of XLP, said: “Over 5,000 young people were permanently excluded in 2010/2011 and
those are just the ones that we know about. Countless others are being illegally excluded according to reports
by the Children's Commissioner and the Centre for Social Justice. Removing access to good education from a
child has a devastating and often life-long negative impact upon a young person and their family, whether we
call it exclusion, or referrals or part-time timetables or managed moves or dual registration. The time for
simply gathering more and more data and talking around the issue needs to come to an end. It is now a time
to decide what to do and do it. That's what this conference is about - how we can begin to see real and
sustainable change start to happen?"
The conference heard that many young people who are excluded from school are sent to Pupil Referral Units
(PRUs). Whilst PRUs can be an effective and helpful form of short-term intervention if done correctly, the
reality is that all too often they are being used as a dumping ground by mainstream schools to take their
'difficult' students on a long-term or even permanent basis. Each student place in a PRU costs £17,000 per year
– this is not a cheap alternative. How effective are they? As always, there are some very good PRUs and PRU
staff working in very difficult situations achieving incredibly positive outcomes. However, overall, in 2010/11
just 1.5 per cent of PRU students achieved five good GCSEs including Mathematics and English compared to 59
per cent nationally in mainstream schools. One-in-four students in PRUs left at Key Stage 4 with no
qualifications at all1.
Rather than simply exploring point issues or short-term fixes, the conference instead looked at how perhaps
we need to expand our understanding of what we mean by 'education.' In this keynote speech, "How do you
inspire the un-inspired?", Steve Chalke MBE, Founder and CEO of Oasis Community Learning that operates 28
academies across the U.K., proposed that “education needs to be about more than simply teaching students’
content from a textbook. It involves investment in the whole life of a child to see their behaviour change and
see them inspired by learning. If we can support the child, the family and the community, then we will see our
young people excel.” This is the approach adopted by the Oasis Academies combined with a policy of zero
exclusion, with schools becoming the hubs of communities, where teachers are encouraged to engage beyond
simply academic attainment, and where the ethos of education is radically interwoven with a sense healthy
community (www.oasiscommunitylearning.org).
Patrick Regan commented: "With around 14,000 pupils attend referral units around the country and a further
23,000 are in other forms of “alternative provision,” the current system is not working for kids who are
struggling. I believe we need to think radically: stop trying to massage the figures and fix up a broken exclusion
1
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10030406/Shocking-underclass-of-our-schoolsystem-creating-the-criminals-of-tomorrow.html
system, and begin to reimagine an education system where exclusion is not needed. I hope we've begun to do
that today at this conference."
ENDS
Further case studies, interviews and photos, available upon request, please contact Ibi Oruwari: email
ibiere.oruwari@xlp.org.uk or call +44 (0) 7540 725 290 or call the XLP office on 0208 297 8284.
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
In 1996, in response to a stabbing in a school playground, the school’s headmaster asked Patrick Regan, a local
church based youth worker, to come into the school and work with their students and teachers to help with
difficult behavioural issues. This was the beginning of XLP, a Christian charity that has an emphasis on being
faith-based, but not faith-biased.
Over the past 15 years XLP has grown from working in a single school to operating in over 60 schools and
communities across Southwark, Lewisham, Greenwich, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Islington and Camden. In
the early days, Patrick began by hosting a lunch-time club on school premises that taught the kids more about
their own heroes, and in particular how those heroes behaved. Today, on a day-to-day basis, XLP has projects
working with over 1000 young people 1-2-1 and in small groups each week and engages with over 12,000 each
year.
CEO Patrick Regan has travelled to over thirty countries working with and on behalf of some of the poorest
communities. His passion is to see children and young people, from the most deprived and challenging
backgrounds, succeed in life - helping them to avoid making wrong choices and to overcome the challenges
they face - to realise their amazing potential. To do this he has engaged with politicians and gang members,
victims and perpetrators, police, councils and housing associations, and most particularly with the young
people themselves and their families. Patrick founded the charity, XLP that today is committed to fighting
poverty, supporting education and serving hundreds of young people and their families weekly in inner
London. He is also the author of three books including No Ceiling to Hope. He lives with his wife and four
children in South-east London.
Patrick, who won the Mayor of London Peace Award for Outstanding Contribution to Peace in the Community
in 2010, is also on the advisory board of the Centre for Social Justice. In 2012 Patrick received an OBE in the
Jubilee Queens Birthday honours list.
To find out more about XLP, please visit www.xlp.org.uk
For further information please contact Ibi Oruwari: email ibiere.oruwari@xlp.org.uk or call +44 (0) 7540 725
290 or call the XLP office on 0208 297 8284.