Why we start before Year 7.
When a young person’s needs are understood before secondary school, their new school can plan for them. When nobody knows, a child can be left to struggle on their own. This page shows what the published figures say happens when support comes late, what each step costs the taxpayer, and what one place on our programme costs beside it.
The missing piece
The teacher knows. The SENCO knows. The young person is none the wiser.
Our approach aims to have a young person’s needs understood before Year 7, so they get the chance to thrive in a classroom, in a way that makes sense to them.
Support for ADHD and neurodivergence should begin early. This should be needs-led, begin in preschool or school…
Words from NHS England (opens in a new tab). Page: Report of the independent ADHD Taskforce: Part 1.
Enhancing teachers’ understanding of ADHD and supporting them to better manage ADHD in the classroom could also reduce ADHD symptom expression and key impairments while waiting.
Words from NHS England (opens in a new tab). Page: Report of the independent ADHD Taskforce: Part 1.
When support comes late, or not at all
The path we want to interrupt.
NHS England’s ADHD Taskforce puts it in two sentences:
“Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), when unsupported, is a potent route into educational failure, long-term unemployment, crime, substance misuse, suicide, mental and physical illness.
Economic costs of at least £17 billion are avoidable as, when appropriately supported, individuals with ADHD can thrive.”
The steps below are that possible route. Our aim is to reach a child before they learn to hide the fact that they cannot keep up, to switch off, or to act up to cover it all.
Where we come in
Robur.Connect is designed to come in at the first step, in Year 6, so the assessment and the support plan are in place before Year 7.
Step 1: Struggling in class
Higher risk
“Children with ADHD are at higher risk of academic failure, being bullied, school exclusion and school drop out.”
NHS England, ADHD Taskforce, 2025
Step 2: Suspended or excluded
6 times
Pupils who get extra help at school for special educational needs (SEN support) were permanently excluded at six times the rate of pupils with no identified SEN in 2024 to 2025. Across all pupils, persistent disruptive behaviour was 40% of the reasons given for permanent exclusions, and Years 9 and 10 had the highest rates. The figure counts pupils recorded as getting SEN support. It does not say when that support began, so we cannot tell whether it came early or only after disruptive patterns had already set in as a way of coping.
Department for Education, 2026
Step 3: Alternative provision
60.0%
Alternative provision is education away from a mainstream school, arranged for a pupil who, because of an exclusion, illness or another reason, would not otherwise get a suitable education. A pupil referral unit (PRU) is one kind. After Year 11, 91.3% of pupils from mainstream schools stayed in education, an apprenticeship or a job for at least six months. From alternative provision, such as a PRU, it was 60.0%.
Figures from the Department for Education, 2026
Step 4: The justice system
59%
Researchers took the school records of about 1.63 million children in England who finished primary school between 2008 and 2010, and matched them with Ministry of Justice records of cautions and sentences up to the age of 17. Of the children who had ever been permanently excluded, 59% had also been cautioned or sentenced for an offence.
Department for Education and Ministry of Justice, 2022
Step 5: Reoffending
31.0%
Of the children in England and Wales who were cautioned or convicted, 31.0% committed another offence within a year that led to a further caution or conviction. That is about three in ten.
Ministry of Justice, 2026
In London custody
Half
The University of Cambridge and the Metropolitan Police screened people arrested at six custody centres in London over eight weeks in 2024. Screening means a short questionnaire about ADHD traits. It is not a diagnosis. A score at or above the threshold is called a positive screen: it means possible ADHD, and the person is pointed towards a full assessment. Eight per cent of the people screened already had an ADHD diagnosis, against an estimated 2.5% of the general population. Of those with no diagnosis, half scored at or above the threshold.
Metropolitan Police and University of Cambridge, 2025
What it costs the taxpayer
Every step along that path is paid for by the taxpayer.
The money comes from the taxpayer, through the Department for Education, the child’s council and the justice system. These are the published rates, so you can check each one.
A secondary school place
£6,640 a year
The minimum funding per pupil, per year, in a mainstream secondary school in 2026 to 2027, paid through the Department for Education.
Department for Education, 2026
An alternative provision place
£10,000 a year, plus a top up
The £10,000 pays for one pupil’s place for one year, in a pupil referral unit, an alternative provision academy or an alternative provision free school, in 2026 to 2027. The top up is the extra paid for that pupil, to cover what their provision costs above the place. The council, or the school that sends the pupil, pays it.
Department for Education, 2026
One permanent exclusion
At least £170,000
The potential lifetime cost to the taxpayer of permanently excluding a 14 year old. All four parts come from one piece of work: researchers at Pro Bono Economics, for IPPR and The Difference, took studies that compare children who were permanently excluded with similar children who were not, and added up the extra cost to the taxpayer over a lifetime, in 2023/24 prices. They count only official permanent exclusions, and they call the result conservative.
Lower earnings, so less tax paid and more Universal Credit
£110,000
The higher chance of a custodial sentence in the youth justice system, costed at the price of a custody place
£30,000
Not in education, training or work at 18 to 24
£15,000
The extra cost of an alternative provision place over a mainstream one, for the time an excluded 14 year old typically spends there
£10,000
- The four parts added up
- £165,000
- The source’s own total
- £170,000
The source rounds each part, which is why they come to £5,000 less than its total. It leaves out the adult justice system, health and social care, which is why it says “at least”.
IPPR and The Difference, analysis by Pro Bono Economics, 2024
If a child is arrested
£373 a night on remand
A child who is arrested is held at a police station, then released, or charged and taken to court. The court can let them go home on bail, or hold them on remand until the case is heard. A child remanded into custody is held in a young offender institution, a secure training centre or a secure children’s home. From 1 April 2026, a night in a young offender institution costs £373, so a week costs £2,611. A secure training centre is £1,027 a night and a secure children’s home £1,230. The child’s council pays. A year’s place in a young offender institution, with education, was last put at £129,334.
SI 2026/239; Ministry of Justice, January 2024
Reoffending by children and young people
£1.5 billion
What one year’s group of child offenders in England and Wales cost by offending again within a year, in 2017/18 prices. £869 million of it is the harm to victims, the property stolen or damaged, and the cost to the NHS and victim services. £445 million is the police, the courts and custody. £166 million is what is spent to guard against crime.
Ministry of Justice, 2019
Robur.Connect, one young person
£5,756.80
One funded place: two years of support, from Year 6 to the end of Year 8, with the assessment, the support plan, CBT, mentoring and two nature trips. The full programme costs less than one year of an alternative provision place.
For fundersCheck all sourcesEvery figure and claim on this page, with a link to where it comes from.SourcesClose
North London
- Half of people arrested in London may have undiagnosed ADHD, study finds (opens in a new tab)
University of Cambridge, on the study by Brown and others, Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 2025 (doi:10.1002/cbm.70018). Published 10 December 2025, updated 16 December 2025. Read 13 October 2026.
Six Metropolitan Police custody centres, over eight weeks in 2024; 303 people were eligible and 71% agreed to be screened. ADHD traits were measured with “a modified version of the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale”. The tools “are not diagnostic”; they pick out people “who may benefit from further clinical assessment”. “Eight per cent of those screened reported an existing ADHD diagnosis”, against “the estimated 2.5% prevalence in the general population”. “A further 50% of individuals without a diagnosis screened positive for possible ADHD.” Existing diagnoses were self-reported. The count of 199 people with no existing diagnosis is in the paper itself (doi above), not on this press page.
National sources that cover North London
- Report of the independent ADHD Taskforce: Part 1 (opens in a new tab)
NHS England. April 2025. Read 11 October 2026.
Support “should begin early”, be needs-led and not require a diagnosis; better teacher understanding “could also reduce ADHD symptom expression and key impairments while waiting”.
- Report of the independent ADHD Taskforce: Part 2 (opens in a new tab)
NHS England. November 2025. Read 11 October 2026.
“Children with ADHD are at higher risk of academic failure, being bullied, school exclusion and school drop out” (quoted on Home and Why start early). The report opens: “Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), when unsupported, is a potent route into educational failure, long-term unemployment, crime, substance misuse, suicide, mental and physical illness.” The next sentence ends “when appropriately supported, individuals with ADHD can thrive.” Both quoted in part on Why start early.
- Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England: 2024 to 2025 (opens in a new tab)
Department for Education. Published 9 July 2026. Read 11 October 2026.
“The permanent exclusion rate for pupils with SEN support was 0.37, which is six times the rate for pupils with no identified SEN.” “Years 9 and 10 had the highest rates of permanent exclusion at 0.35.” “Persistent disruptive behaviour accounted for 52% of all reasons given for suspension and for 40% of reasons for permanent exclusions.”
- Alternative provision: statutory guidance for local authorities (opens in a new tab)
Department for Education. Published 10 January 2013, last updated 5 February 2025. Read 13 October 2026.
The guidance has no formal definition of alternative provision. It says where it applies: Alternative provision is education “local authorities arrange ... for pupils who, because of exclusion, illness or other reasons, would not otherwise receive suitable education”, education schools arrange for pupils on a suspension, and pupils sent off site to improve their behaviour. Behind the plain words definition on Why start early. The plain-words definition on Why start early is in our own words.
- Key stage 4 destination measures: 2024/25 (opens in a new tab)
Department for Education. Published 15 October 2026. Read 2 November 2026.
“60.0% of pupils from AP went to a sustained destination, compared with 91.3% from state-funded mainstream schools.” “A sustained destination means at least six months recorded activity in the year following the end of key stage 4 (year 11)”, in education, an apprenticeship or employment. The figures cover pupils who left key stage 4 in 2023/24, followed through 2024/25. AP includes pupil referral units.
- Education, children’s social care and offending: descriptive statistics (opens in a new tab)
Department for Education and Ministry of Justice. First published 10 March 2022, last updated 20 July 2023. Read 1 November 2026.
About 1.63 million pupils who finished Key Stage 2 in 2007/08 to 2009/10, offending at ages 10 to 17. “59% of children that had ever been permanently excluded were also cautioned or sentenced for an offence.” Exclusion was more common among those given custody than in any other group. The 59% and the 1.63 million figures are in the 2022 descriptive statistics report, not the 2023 modelling report on the same page.
- Proven reoffending statistics: October to December 2024 (opens in a new tab)
Ministry of Justice. Published 29 October 2026. Read 2 November 2026.
England and Wales. “Child offenders had a proven reoffending rate of 31.0%.” Measured over a one-year follow-up period.
- Economic and social costs of reoffending (opens in a new tab)
Ministry of Justice. Published 18 July 2019. Read 11 October 2026.
England and Wales, offenders from 2016, 2017/18 prices. £18.1 billion in total, of which “the cost of reoffending by children and young people” was £1.5 billion (Table 2: £1,480 million). Of that, costs in anticipation of crime £166 million; costs as a consequence of crime £869 million (physical and emotional harm, property stolen or damaged, NHS and victim services); costs in response to crime £445 million (police, courts, custody). Theft reoffences £532 million, robbery £485 million, violence against the person £258 million.
- The national funding formula for schools and high needs: 2026 to 2027 (opens in a new tab)
Department for Education. December 2025. Read 1 November 2026.
The minimum per pupil funding for a secondary school pupil: £6,640 in 2026 to 2027.
- High needs funding 2026 to 2027: operational guide (sections 10.2, 10.4 and 10.7) (opens in a new tab)
Department for Education. Published 17 December 2025, last updated 14 October 2026. Read 1 November 2026.
Pupil referral units, alternative provision academies and alternative provision free schools are “funded at £10,000 per place, regardless of whether the place will be commissioned directly by a school” or by the council (10.4). Top up funding is “the funding required over and above the core or place funding, to enable a pupil to participate in education” (10.2). Where the council commissions the place “the top-up funding is allocated from the local authority’s high needs budget”; where a school commissions it, it “may come from centrally held high needs funding that has been devolved to that school” (10.7).
- Who is Losing Learning? The case for reducing exclusions across mainstream schools (opens in a new tab)
IPPR and The Difference. September 2024. Read 10 October 2026.
At least £170,000 per child permanently excluded at age 14, in 2023/24 prices, “directly associated” with the exclusion (analysis by Pro Bono Economics). Table 4.2, “Cost to the state of permanently excluding a 14-year-old”: reduced earnings potential for those who do find work £110,000; costs for those not in education, training or work aged 18 to 24 £15,000; custodial sentences in the youth justice system £30,000; additional costs of alternative provision placement £10,000; total £170,000 (“Totals may not sum due to rounding”). It leaves out the adult criminal justice system, health and social care, so it is “likely to represent an underestimate”. £1.6 billion is the cost for the 2022/23 cohort.
- The Recovery of Costs (Remand to Youth Detention Accommodation) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/239) (opens in a new tab)
legislation.gov.uk. In force from 1 April 2026. Read 10 October 2026.
From 1 April 2026, for each night a child is held on remand: £373 in a young offender institution (it was £353), £1,027 in a secure training centre, £1,230 in a secure children’s home (£852 where it is a secure 16 to 19 academy). “Designated authorities are liable to pay the Secretary of State”: the child’s council.
- Youth custody: costs. Written question 8178, answered 11 January 2024 (opens in a new tab)
Ministry of Justice, UK Parliament. 11 January 2024. Read 13 October 2026.
“The average annual cost per place for a child or young person in youth custody, inclusive of educational services, is”: young offender institution £129,333.58; secure training centre £305,892.40; secure children’s home £299,459.47. “There is no difference in cost per place whether the child or young person is on remand or is in custody for other reasons.” The answer does not say which financial year the figures are for.