A MOVE to tackle mounting numbers of pupils being excluded from schools which has attracted vociferous criticism has been approved.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive took less than five minutes to pass proposals to change the way children at risk of exclusion from schools are handled, which the authority has described as moving to a “preventative and inclusive culture”.

Despite the transformation of alternative provision, which will save the council £1.2m and help offset spiralling pressures over funding children with high needs, attracting months of criticism, only one leading member of the council spoke ahead of a vote to approve the changes.

The changes will see more funding directed towards enabling mainstream schools to keep pupils at risk of exclusion. Teaching unions have claimed government cuts to education funding have left schools less able to help children with challenging behaviour before it escalates.

Executive member for education Councillor Patrick Mulligan told members being excluded from school had been shown to had a significant effect on children’s life chances and that action was needed to tackle rising numbers of pupils being expelled.

He said rising exclusions was a nationwide issue, but the rate in North Yorkshire was above the national average in 2017/18, with 26 out of 43 secondary schools permanently excluding at least one young person.

Ahead of the meeting campaigners claimed three of the county’s five pupil referral unit head teachers, have resigned as a result of the changes which will see funding directed away from their units, while the future of the Harrogate-based service remained uncertain.

A Save The Pupil Referral Service campaign spokesman said: “Students and their families need security for the future and the least the council can do is to assure them that they may see out the full school year. We believe other Pupil Referral Units across the county have been given this assurance so the situation in Harrogate appears grossly unfair.”

The meeting heard a senior council officer say the authority was “very confident” that suitable arrangements would be in place in the near future for the Harrogate area service and that it would make a change to a new provider “as seamless as we possibly can do”.