Is it Government policy to privatise PRUs?
In October the Secretary of State was interviewed by the Guardian:-
Gove said he wants voluntary groups and city academies such as Ark schools to take over local authority-controlled pupil referral units for excluded children. He described them as "the weak link in the chain, without an accountable person responsible for making sure these children progress
The Organisation wrote to Mr Gove following this article making this point. (the letter can be found here)
A small group of our Executive members were invited to meet with Christine Gilbert following her contribution at our last conference in York in July. The message that was given both at conference and reiterated again at this meeting was how well PRUs were achieving and improving in relation to overall standards, with a higher percentage of PRUs outstanding compared to schools.
We know that the number of PRUs getting good or outstanding from OfSTED is comparable if not better than mainstream schools.
You can see the reply from Mr Gove's office here where it states:-
I can assure you that the Government values the work that the many good and outstanding Pupil Referral Units do. The children and young people that PRUs deal with are among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in the education system and the Secretary of State recognises that good PRUs do an excellent job in helping these pupils.
And yet in January 2011, whilst talking about the Education Bill in the Guardian, Mr Gove is quoted as saying:-
Gove said he wanted to encourage new organisations to run pupil referral units, including one that recruited army veterans.
"Most local authority-run pupil referral units are not up to snuff... and we know that there are organisations which have done a fantastic job in meeting some of the needs that these young people have.
Usining the word 'Most' here is not only inaccurate but insulting to the large number of LA PRUs who do a very good job, often in extremely difficult circumstances.
We call upon Mr Gove to be honest. If it is his intention for political or ideolgical reasons to privatise PRUs, then say so rather than making comments that are untrue to justify his actions.