Local authorities are not doing enough to help pupil referral units get students back into mainstream schools, a report from Ofsted has said.
Inspectors, who visited only good or outstanding pupil referral units, said procedures for reintegration were "generally unclear". More than a third of local authorities visited did not have specific targets for reintegration or provide clear data about it.
If pupils were not reintegrated by the age of 14, they tended to spend the rest of their eduation in a pupil referral unit, missing out on two years of mainstream education.
Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "Referral of older children back into schools is less successful because habits and bad behaviour become ingrained."
- www.ofsted.gov.uk.
