A GROUND-BREAKING trial giving Lancashire headteachers extra powers to deal with excluded pupils is a success, an interim report has revealed.

Lancashire County Council secondary schools in Rossendale and Chorley are taking part in a three-year pilot project enabling heads to monitor progress.

The Oswaldtwistle Short-Stay School and its Chorley equivalent Shaftesbury work with the secondaries on early intervention to keep pupils in mainstream or return them to normal classes quickly.

Normally the county places excluded children in alternative provision and pays for it.

The Department for Education (DfE) initiative gives schools cash directly for specialist support for children likely to be or already excluded.

The child, if excluded, remains on their original school’s roll featuring in its performance results.

Lancashire has involved all 40 secondaries in Rossendale, Chorley, South Ribble, West Lancashire and Preston in the trial started in 2011.

The evaluation found schools involved believed it reduced exclusions.

A DfE spokesman said: “These findings are very encouraging. Pupils who are excluded should not be condemned to a third-rate education.”

Lancashire’s alternative provision boss Audrey Swann said: “We felt it was important to shape future policy around such an important issue.”