ETHNIC minority pupils in schools across East Lancashire are doing better, according to a report by the Office for Standards in Education.

Ofsted inspectors visited 50 local education authorities nationwide, including Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen.

They found that council support across the country for ethnic minority pupils was improving, but was still variable.

But in East Lancashire there were capable specialist staff and good management which created a climate in which effective teaching could flourish.

"Giving headteachers more control over resources, including appointments, is a key element in the Government's efforts to ensure that minority ethnic achievement becomes more central to schools' work," the inspectors said. The new Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant has helped to connect action on raising educational standards. "It has brought about positive change in some of the schools which receive it, but there is still some way to go before all of them make use of its full potential," they warned.

The key factors were the availability of expert staff, the extent to which school managers understand and facilitate good teaching and good links with parents and the wider community. "Although the teaching of English as an additional language is usually good, steps to support under-achieving groups are still tentative and not well enough thought through in some schools," the inspectors said.

And the recruitment and retention of specialist staff was a continuing problem.

The report, Managing Support for the Attainment of Pupils from Minority Ethnic Groups, is being sent to all maintained schools in East Lancashire as well as the area's local education authorities.