Herefordshire to pilot groundbreaking education project

Herefordshire is to have three new centres to help children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties, thanks to a successful bid by Herefordshire Council to become part of a national pilot programme.

This week the Secretary of State has officially announced that the council has successfully bid for nearly £2million to develop the new centres.

The pilot will focus on support for students who, for a variety of social and emotional reasons, struggle to manage their behaviour in mainstream schools. To achieve this, the new centres will be built where students will spend a short period of time, usually six weeks, to develop strategies to manage their own behaviour. This will then allow the students to return to mainstream education and reduce the number of children being permanently excluded as well as supporting these students to succeed academically.

One of the new centres will be attached to The Hereford Academy and be part of the new build there, supporting schools in the south of Herefordshire. The other two centres will be in the city and the north of the county.

Councillor Philip Price, cabinet member for ICT , education and performance, said: "This is excellent news for Herefordshire. We want to make sure all our children and young people get the best possible start in life and this includes receiving good quality education. However, sometimes there are issues in a young person's life that can affect their behaviour and cause difficulties in school. Excluding students at such times only takes the problem away from school temporarily - it doesn't help the young person at all, which is why we are so delighted to be able to pilot this new scheme."

The next step is to consult with schools and other agencies to make sure that the design of the pilot programme best meets the needs of the county's students.