Reach Programme
Children living in poverty are four times more likely to face exclusion than their peers. ‘Reach’ is a three-year programme aimed at reducing these rates, currently funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and delivered in areas with high exclusion levels.
Reach exists to help schools meet the complex needs of pupils identified as at risk of exclusion.
Despite a keen awareness of the issue across the sector, fixed-term and permanent exclusions remain disproportionately high for children living in poverty.
The effects are life-long. Half of excluded children will have fallen out of education, employment or training just six months after their GCSEs. Moreover, four in ten prisoners report having been permanently excluded from school.
The cost of exclusion
Individual families and their children are not the only ones left paying the price when, despite their best efforts, pupils are unable to realise their potential:
Source: figures increased by inflation to give 2018 values
Manchester New Economy. (n.d.). Unit Cost Database.
ACEVO. (2012). Youth unemployment: the crisis we cannot afford
Goodall, E., Heady, L., & Brookes, M. (2007). Misspent youth | The costs of truancy and exclusion
About the Reach programme
Using an evidence-based approach, Right to Succeed supports schools to build on the potential of these children.
The programme is suitable for individual schools, Local Authorities or Multi-Academy Trusts wanting to reduce exclusion rates.
How the programme works
We appoint a local Programme Manager to support schools using our collective approach. Over the course of three years, we support schools to identify the needs of the pupils most at risk of exclusion.
We work in consultation with targeted young people and their parents/carers to co-design and review interventions and strategies that are proven to meet that need. Through this work, we aim to deepen and broaden understanding of the needs of those most at risk of exclusion and create systemic solutions to addressing these. We work with schools, intervention partners and through a local steering group to bring together and support the best local and national partners. The steering group oversees the programme as well designing local objectives to create wider impact.