See answers to previous information requests

I am requesting copies of any guidance, policy documents, protocols or frameworks that your local authority currently provides, or has provided since January 2021, to educational settings in your area concerning pupil exclusion. For the purposes of this request, relevant settings include state-funded primary schools, state-funded secondary schools, special schools, sixth form colleges, further education colleges, and others.

1. I am interested in any local authority guidance, protocol or framework on the use of fixed-term suspensions or permanent exclusions, including any model exclusion policy, inclusion guidance or policies, or template the LA provides to settings for adoption or adaptation. I would also like any guidance on when exclusion is or is not the appropriate response to a serious incident - in particular incidents involving weapons or knives - and any guidance on managed moves as an alternative to permanent exclusion, including the criteria and process involved. Please also include any guidance on alternative provision placements (covering how settings are advised to use AP and when it is offered as an alternative to exclusion), any Fair Access Protocol operated by your authority, and any guidance on reintegration support following a suspension or return from alternative provision.
Please see attached documents: Suspensions Exclusions July 2026, Permanent Exclusion and Suspension Guidance March 2026 (to be reviewed March 2027), Fair Access Protocol 2024-25 (published November 2024 and reviewed November 2025). All currently in active use.
WBC’s Permanent Exclusion and Suspension guidance was updated in March 2026 and will be updated once the new guidance comes into place. We hold Education Welfare Surgeries where updates to guidance’s are shared with school staff.
The Fair Access Protocol policy is attached – this is currently being updated and going through internal processes for sign off.
Schools have their own Offsite Direction and Managed Move policies.

2. I would also like any specific guidance your authority provides to settings on how they should respond when a pupil is found in possession of a knife or other offensive weapon on the premises, including when a setting should refer such an incident to the LA's designated safeguarding officer, the Youth Justice Service, or children's social care. Please include any local multi-agency protocol on knife crime or serious youth violence that sets out responsibilities for educational settings, and any LA-issued guidance on the use of metal detectors or search powers.
Please see attached document: Managing Weapons in Schools 2025 (in active use). Please note, the attached guidance was adapted and shared with schools which gives broad advice about how to respond to weapons on site (in response to the Stockport incident in 2025) this is not Local Authority statutory guidance and the overarching advice which accompanied the guidance was that schools must follow their own school’s safeguarding and incident policies in the first instance, and any information within them on who to escalate to, and when.
The attached guidance was reviewed by the TVP and our Prevention and Youth Justice Service. The document was shared with the Designated Safeguarding Leads of all schools in the area, including academies/free schools and independent schools – we don’t have any FE colleges in Wokingham. This document was intended to be a supportive document to accompany their own school policies and there is nothing that states that the school must comply with this document.

3. For each document you identify, please provide the date it was published or most recently reviewed, whether it is currently in active use or has been superseded, whether it is mandatory for maintained settings or advisory, and whether it is also shared with academies, free schools, independent schools or FE colleges in your area.
Please see above response for question 1 and 2.