Very little is known about the views of parents of children excluded from school on the perceived fairness of the processes involved. This paper draws on data from key insights offered by parents in Scotland gathered as part of the larger Excluded Lives study and examines questions of fairness in detail. It borrows from the conceptual framework provided by the Lundy Model of Participation and its concerns about space, voice, audience and influence. It uses these principles to analyse these parents’ views and the extent to which they felt informed about and understood what was happening before, during and after a disciplinary exclusion/suspension; also the extent to which their views were sought and taken seriously in the decisions that were made; how they felt they were treated in terms of bias or discrimination; whether their child or young person’s best interests were considered as a primary consideration; whether they were given appropriate and accessible advice and guidance; and whether and to what extent they considered the outcome to be fair and how, if at all, that was linked to the process they experienced. These findings reveal a striking commonality of experience and raise a series of significant questions about rights, fairness and a sense of being heard but also an equally urgent set of concerns about what happens when children’s needs go unrecognized and/or unmet. Although the sample of parents in the Scottish context was small (N=7) and therefore claims to generalization are necessarily limited, the questions raised and the themes identified coalesce here to reinforce the urgency of a need for policy to invest much more focus and resource on building a new ethos of home-school collaboration overall, but particularly for children at risk of exclusion.

Lundy, L. (2022). The Lundy model of child participation. [Online]. Available at: [Accessed: 19.01.2024].