A COUNCIL official has said that the authority is not “going soft” after a report revealed no exclusions in Helensburgh and Lomond primary schools since 2020/21.
Councillor Gary Mulvaney (Conservative, Helensburgh Central) queried the statistic and suggested that there was pressure to keep young people in school.
Simon Easton, education manager for Helensburgh and Lomond, responded that schools were better equipped to manage behaviour which would have previously resulted in exclusions.
The discussion took place at a meeting of Argyll and Bute Council’s Helensburgh and Lomond area committee on Tuesday, March 10.
A report in advance of the meeting said that there had been no exclusion incidents or openings in Helensburgh and Lomond since 2020/21. None took place in either case anywhere in Argyll and Bute in 2024/25, or in the current session as of December 2025.
Councillor Mulvaney said: “It is good news on the face of it that there have been no exclusions in the Helensburgh and Lomond area in the last couple of years.
“To preface the question, this is based on anecdotal evidence, not necessarily from Helensburgh and Lomond or any particular school.
“But I would suggest that the pressure from others is to keep children in school, as opposed to expelling. Behaviour in the past would have led to expulsions or suspension and potentially remains there, but the pressure is to not go down that route.”
Mr Easton responded: “On exclusions, it reflects perhaps the fact that for the Scottish public generally, there maybe is not the full understanding of how thinking around exclusions has progressed in 15 years.
“There are reasons for exclusion – to protect the wellbeing of pupils and to give schools time to plan for adjustments that will improve the situation.
“The idea of exclusion as a punitive measure is no longer valid in Scottish education; it is seen as an intervention.
“That is sometimes at odds with the views that many in the public realm have, particularly remembering their own schooling, but that is the way education regards exclusion now.
“Basically, there are no exclusions because schools are better equipped to find alternatives. This has been a focus for the last four to five years.
“There is considerable documentation in terms of risk assessments that teachers go through to establish whether exclusion is required as the best option.
“It is not the case that we are going soft, it is because we have a more progressive attitude, and that accounts for the entire authority.”
Councillor Mulvaney then said: “I can only relate to my own experience and where we are going currently. I am not entirely sure having that statistic is meaningful.
“It is probably too big a discussion to have today, but if we have moved on, it is a bit meaningless.”
