NEW education task forces to tackle unruly and disruptive children are to be set up in East Lancashire secondary schools as part of a £30million scheme to raise standards.

Thousands of pounds of extra funding secured by the local education authority at Blackburn with Darwen Council will help establish multi-skilled In School Centre teams which aim to make sure disaffected pupils avoid temporary or permanent exclusion from school.

The scheme, which allows individual schools to decide the best way to deal with pupils, was announced by the authority as it revealed that more than £30million worth of extra funding had been pumped into education since it acquired unitary status in 1998.

Coun Bill Taylor, chairman of the education and training committee, said the In School Centre proposal was the latest in a long line of achievements.

He went on: "The idea is to tackle disruptive and potentially disruptive children as early as possible so that other children are not affected and so teaching can continue "The problem with disruptive or disaffected children is not just about education. These children can get involved in crime if they are not at school, while children who do not get an education do not get good jobs so it all affects society as a whole."

The initiative is among a number of schemes paid for through extra funding which include creating 14 new infant classes in 10 local schools as part of the Government's programme to reduce all infant classes to less than 30 by September.

The authority has also provided extra teachers, embarked on building schemes funded by money from the New Deal for Schools initiative and is working towards developing access to the National Grid for Learning network which connects schools to each other to help swap ideas and best practice.

Individual schemes which have benefited from the extra cash include the replacement of Darwen's Holy Trinity Primary, the establishment of the partnership between Blackburn's Queen's Park High and Crosshill Special School, which led to Technology Status and the development of summer learning programmes across the borough.

Coun Taylor went on: "We are working well together to improve school buildings as well as the teaching and learning, to raise achievement, to help raise the town's economic base and provide better jobs to improve people's lives."