WORCESTERSHIRE County Council has responded to claims it is not dong enough to get students at a short-stay school back into mainstream education.

Ofsted inspector Deb Jenkins, who visited Newbridge Short Stay School, in Midland Road, Worcester, which takes students excluded from other schools, said there were “no local authority systems in place to promote pupils returning to mainstream schools”.

The report said work to ensure pupils receive the right support is “hampered”, stating that leaders provided “compelling evidence” that transition information from the local authority for newly referred pupils is almost always sparse or missing altogether.

Councillor Marcus Hart said: “The county council’s aim is that all children in Worcestershire receive a high quality education.

“We continue to review monitoring arrangements to improve robust data reporting to schools and quality standards for alternative provision, which includes analysis of reintegration rates.

“The council continues to be aware that nationally there are concerns about the rates at which children and young people return to mainstream schools from alternative provision.

“However, since 2014/15 the number of children returning to mainstream or specialist long term provision has increased from 20 to 51 in 2017/18.

“Although this is an improvement in the success rate of reintegration, we continue to work in partnership with the schools across the county to understand and break down barriers to reintegration.”