ABSTRACT
This chapter will give an account of the current policy context and practice in relation to the issue of exclusion from school in Scotland and then discuss some emerging themes from a current research project, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation,1 which is looking at inter-agency practice effective in preventing exclusion from school. It will refer to the accounts of service-users – young people who have been excluded or are at risk of exclusion, and their parents – and explore their understandings of the different professionals involved in their lives. It will then briefly discuss some initial conclusions derived from interviews with the professionals and from observations of inter-agency professional meetings. Finally it will discuss the implications for policy and for successful inter-agency practice.
