You are not one of the parties to an independent review panel, so you have no automatic right to attend or be represented — that list is parents, the pupil if 18 or over, the headteacher, the responsible body and the arranging authority.
But the guidance does build in a route for you. The panel must have regard to the interests of people working at the school, and where there is an alleged victim the clerk should try to find out whether they want a voice.
updated 26 Jul 2026last checked 8 Aug 2026
What the source actually says
Who counts as a party, and what a party gets:
“Parties (who are parents, the pupil if they are 18 years or older, the headteacher of the school, the responsible body, and the arranging authority) attending the hearing have the right to be represented.”
— Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement, DfE, July 2026 edition (in force from 26 July 2026), para 202 DfE
Staff are not on that list. They are, however, inside what the panel has to weigh:
“In reviewing the decision, the panel must consider the interests and circumstances of the permanently excluded pupil, including the circumstances in which the pupil was permanently excluded, and have regard to the interests of other pupils and people working at the school.”
— Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement, DfE, July 2026 edition, para 219 DfE
And there is an explicit step for the person the incident happened to:
“To review the governing board’s decision, the panel will generally need to hear from those involved in the incident, or incidents, leading to the permanent exclusion.”
— Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement, DfE, July 2026 edition, para 197 DfE
The same paragraph then turns to the person the incident happened to. The clerk, it says, should also try to ascertain whether an alleged victim, if there is one, wishes to be given a voice at the review — and it sets out three ways that can happen:
“This could be in person, through a representative or by submitting a written statement.”
— Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement, DfE, July 2026 edition, para 197 DfE
Note the three routes. Attending in person is only one of them, and a written statement carries the same standing. Teachers are also named, at the earlier governing board stage, as people a statement can come from:
“Witness statements can be gathered from the headteacher, the pupil’s teachers, the designated safeguarding lead, the pupil themselves, the pupil’s parent(s) and if applicable, the designated teacher for looked-after children.”
— Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement, DfE, July 2026 edition, footnote 67 DfE
This is the panel that reviews a permanent exclusion the governing board has declined to overturn. “Should” in this guidance means good practice a school departs from only with good reason — the document sets that out in its own terminology section.
Your school may still require it
Your school can go further than the guidance: many will ask the member of staff involved for a written account as a matter of course, and that is a reasonable instruction. It works the other way too — nothing here obliges you to attend a hearing in person, and a written statement is expressly one of the routes the guidance offers. If the incident involves an allegation about a child’s safety or about a member of staff, that is a matter for the designated safeguarding lead and, where staff are involved, the local authority designated officer, not for this process.
See also Do we have to wait for the police before suspending or excluding a pupil? and Will my name be on a witness statement the parents see?.