ACTION must be taken to address the problem of some schools being forced to take large numbers of excluded pupils, according to new report.

Concerns have been raised that one of the reasons Worcester's Elgar Technology College was failed by Ofsted was because it is forced to take children already excluded from other schools.

Now, a team of Worces-tershire county councillors has published findings of a year-long investigation in-to the matter.

The report does not name any specific schools but raises serious concerns about the number of surplus places in particular schools, "which forces them to take a disproportionate number of already excluded and thus undermines the parental confidence in the school".

It calls on Richard Hubbard, the director of children's services, to review the situation.

The report, presented to the county's overview and scrutiny steering committee yesterday, came up with 22 recommendations for alternative support the council could offer, such as offering schools extra funding to deal with pupils' behavioural problems before exclusion becomes an option.

Lead member of the task group Councillor Jo Hodges said: "We have not named schools because of confidentiality, but it's up to members and the public to put an interpretation on that as they will," she said.

"I think one of the most valuable things that's come out of this exercise is the opportunity to go into schools and talk to heads about the different techniques they use to contain pupils with bad behaviour.

"What we have found is there's such a lot of good practice going on in many schools and what we want to recommend is where a school has found something that works, the council will sustain it."

Coun John Buckley, who has raised concerns about Elgar's high number of excluded pupils, welcomed the report.

The report said although permanent exclusions for Worcestershire are continuing to rise, they are relatively low in comparison with nearby councils.