FEWER temporary and permanent exclusions were handed out to school children in Lancashire last year, new figures can reveal.

Blackburn with Darwen Council and Lancashire County Council has reduced the numbers of children taken out of school for bad behaviours by hundreds in 2009-2010 compared to the previous year.

The success is being put down to the creation of parental contracts when a child begins to have problems and support from educational experts.

According to Department for Education figures, in Blackburn with Darwen 10 permanent exclusions were handed out compared to 20 the previous year and 520 temporary exclusions were given out, which was a drop of 30 in 2008-2009.

In Lancashire, 210 permanent exclusions were made compared to 260 in 2008-2009, the last figures available, and there were 5,720 temporary exclusions, which is 600 fewer than last year.

As a perentage of the total school population, Lancashire County Council’s total of permanent exclusions was 0.13 per cent, above the regional and national average of 0.09 per cent and 0.08 per cent respectively.

The total number of temporary exclusions of 3.54 per cent was well below the regional average of 4.25 per cent and national average 4.46 per cent.

And in Blackburn with Darwen permanent exclusion of 0.05 per cent and temporary exclusion of 2.18 was below both the regional and national averages.

Lancashire County Councillor Susie Charles, cabinet member for Children and Schools, said: "We support schools in reducing exclusions in a variety of ways, via our team of experienced advisers, consultants, and our county strategy for special educational needs and behaviour.

"As part of this strategy we will improve the way we look at the data on exclusions, which will help us to find more effective ways of reducing them.

"For example, we are working closely with schools and other services to develop parenting contracts as an early intervention before a child is excluded."