Rupil Referral Units Could Have a Name Change and Be Run by Private Companies.

Private companies, voluntary groups and independent schools could educate pupils who have been excluded from schools in England.

The name "pupil referral units" is to be scrapped - and new providers will be invited to raise standards.

The plan calls for earlier intervention - including making efforts to identify problem children in primary school.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls says there must be a "radical transformation" of learning outside mainstream classes.

Mr Balls has set out a root and branch reform of provision for excluded and disruptive pupils - in an attempt to raise the low performance of the current system.

At present, only 1% of youngsters in pupil referral units achieve the basic level of five good GCSEs.

The proposals set out in the White Paper, Back on Track, call for a more innovative range of alternatives, including "studio schools" for vocational training and schemes from the private and voluntary sector.

The shake-up would mark an "end to a penal and low-education approach," said Mr Balls.

The Prince's Trust has already expressed an interest in taking part in one of 10 pilot schemes, which will receive £26.5m in government funding.

Mr Balls has not ruled out profit-making companies - pointing to the private companies involved in secure training centres - and said he would be "enthusiastic" to have the participation of independent schools.

The proposals would see the closure of failing referral units - and the requirement for a more effective replacement, either from the state, private or voluntary sector.

There will be an emphasis on early intervention, which is likely to mean an increase in the number of children, particularly primary school pupils, passing through these referral units - for shorter periods of time.

"Often primary heads and teachers are the best early indicator of things going wrong," said Mr Balls.
"A child with a special educational need or a sibling who has been involved with crime - those are very substantial risk factors. We can identify all of those risk factors at primary school," he said.

"We would like to be intervening at a much earlier stage and using alternative provision before you get into the world of exclusions at all."