The Hackney Independent Socialist Collective is pleased to see the opening of the Behaviour Management & School Inclusion Call for Evidence from the council’s Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission. We particularly welcome this step as a result of sustained pressure to confront the damage caused by punitive school behaviour policies. Councillors Claudia Turbet-Delof and Penny Wrout have both worked hard to highlight and expose the profound harm that harsh school behaviour policies can have on children and young people’s lives, future prospects, and their wider communities.

This Call for Evidence represents a vital opportunity for parents, pupils, educators, support staff and the wider community to submit their experiences to Hackney Council, with evidence and recommendations on how behaviour policies in Hackney schools are designed, applied and experienced by young people on the ground.

We urge everyone with relevant experiences across Hackney to take part. Completing this Call for Evidence is one of the few formal routes through which residents, families and young people themselves can directly influence policy.

Hackney is amongst the boroughs with the highest level of school exclusions across both inner and outer London. This is not an accident. It is the result of a trend towards increasingly harsh, rigid and punitive behaviour policies that too often prioritise control over care, compliance over understanding, and punishment over support. Too many children are being excluded for low-level behaviours. 

Nationally, in the 23/24 academic year there were 954,952 Suspensions and 10,885 Permanent Exclusions. Children and young people with SEND and those from Black and Global Majority communities are disproportionately impacted. 

Exclusion does not resolve the challenges young people face, it intensifies them. It damages mental health, disrupts education, increases long-term risk of poverty and criminalisation, and places unbearable pressure on families and wider communities. Harmful behaviour policies have a profound and lifelong impact on children and young people’s futures, confidence and life chances.

We are committed to the vision of an emotionally healthy borough for all children and young people. That requires a decisive shift away from punishment-led discipline towards care-led, trauma-informed, inclusive and restorative approaches. 

We encourage residents, parents, carers, teachers, school staff and young people with relevant experiences to complete the Call for Evidence and make your voices heard. 

Deadline 9 January 2026

In solidarity,

Hackney Independent Socialist Collective