The City School Exclusion Service (CITYSES) is dedicated to helping students and families navigate and contest permanent school exclusions. We offer free casework and representation in the exclusion process.
We are part of the City Law School Law in Real Life service. In LawIRL we aim to widen access to justice and the legal profession by offering clients free legal assistance, and law students volunteering opportunities.
All work is supervised by qualified lawyers, and students receive training on the law to enable them to participate.
School exclusions work has been taking place at the City Law School for over 10 years generously supported by barristers at Matrix and 11 KBW chambers. During this period the service was known as the School Exclusions Project.
We are immensely grateful for all the support we received from the chambers to enable us to do this work.
In 2024 the project was renamed the City School Exclusions Service as it is now centrally managed by the City Law School.
Members of the City Law School staff who are qualified solicitors and barristers have now taken on the supervision of the work and will be taking the service forward.
What happens when you make an enquiry?
We consider whether we are able to assist you. We make the decision by looking at your case details and the date of any scheduled hearings or meetings. We cannot help all the clients who approach us, but we will do our best to give you other sources of information.
Our services
We offer families of excluded children in London casework and representation in (subject to availability) in:
- Meetings with school governors to challenge a permanent exclusion
- Meetings at Independent Review Panels to challenge decisions of a school governing body
Please note we do not represent clients in tribunal hearings and cannot conduct litigation under the Legal Services Act 2007. We do not have a legal aid contract. If you are eligible for legal aid, you should seek advice through an education specialist. You can see whether you are eligible here.
When does the service open?
The service opens in term time usually from October/ November through to June with a pause for Xmas and Easter.
In 2024/25 as will be opening in November due to training and development.
We close during summer months. We always put an out of office on during these periods containing referral information.
Outside of these times you can access information and templates about school exclusions on the Corum website.
Are we a legal practice?
The Law in Real Life service (City Community Legal Advice Centre, Company Insolvency Project and City School Exclusions Service) does not hold itself out to be a solicitors’ firm and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
It does however aim to provide the same high standard of service expected in the practice of law. We are however a member of LawWorks and are committed to Pro Bono Protocol.
The Director of the Law In Real Life services is an experienced, qualified solicitor, regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. All our volunteers are trained in the law of school exclusions and are committed to providing pro bono services to give back to the community.
What if my problem is not covered by your service?
If you have any other issues relating to school exclusion or education law you can contact School Exclusions Hub : Coram Group.
Unfortunately, we are not able to provide advice to current staff or students.
How do you deal with my personal information?
To process your enquiry, the City School Exclusion Service will need to collect some personal information from you to decide whether we help and if there is any conflict of interest.
We collect, process, and use your personal information in compliance with data protection laws, if you consent. Please note that if you do not provide certain personal information, we will not be able to carry out essential checks, and this could mean we cannot help you.
Please read the CitySES Privacy Notice for details of how we will deal with the information you provide to us. We store data in a confidential cloud-based case management system which is secure.
What you can expect from the City School Exclusion Service?
Volunteer lawyers supervise trained law students to undertake casework and representation for the families of excluded children. If we cannot help you for whatever reason, we will let you know and provide you with relevant referral sources and information.
Please note our students are trained but they are not yet professionally qualified. They will be working under the close supervision of fully qualified lawyers.
Our lawyers are either City Law School staff, or volunteers from practice. All volunteers are covered by our insurance and provide advice on behalf of CitySES.
Who is responsible for your case?
Your case will be allocated to two Student Representatives who will work on your case. The lawyer who supervises your case has oversight, as does the Centre Director Sally Gill, a qualified and experienced solicitor.
Supervision is also provided by qualified volunteers lawyers, and City Law School staff who are also qualified as either solicitors or barristers.
What are the terms and conditions of the CitySES service?
We explain our terms in our Client Care information document which you can download.
Resources
We utilise the resources generously provided by Corum’s Children Centre to inform our work. The School Exclusions Hub : Coram Group is a fantastic resource available to professionals and parents.
Please bear in mind that the resources are not ours and City Law School, City St George’s University cannot be held responsible if changes in the law mean that the content is out of date. You should always seek advice if you are unclear.
Get help
If you have received an exclusion letter, you should fill in our online form to request representation.
Please bear in mind that most exclusions services are inundated with clients, and it is not always possible to get back to every client who approaches us.
You may therefore find it helpful to reach out to a number of different services at the same time, to see which have capacity to take your case.
Contact Us
The best way to request our help is to fill in our online form. If you cannot do this then you can call or email us and we will arrange to call you back if we have capacity to take your case.
Email: schoolexclusionservice@city.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7040 5414 (24 hours answerphone)