Northamptonshire County Council’s Cabinet have approved a report regarding the future of the Springboard Pupil Referral Units for pupils facing exclusion from mainstream schools. Liberal Democrat County Councillors are very concerned as to what is happening to those pupils that have been denied admittance to those units since the OfSTED report last October when the council stopped the admission of pupils to the Springboard units. This has led to the reduction in the number of students to just 37 students currently in year ten and has allowed the closure of four of the units at the end of this term.

The report presented to cabinet proposes a compromise – an attempt to buy time to formulate and get up and running Behaviour and Attendance Partnerships as a replacement to Springboard, but these will not be up and running until January next year. By keeping three of the units open for the next school year it is giving the council time to set up the Behaviour and Attendance Partnerships. Whilst the principle of these partnerships is good, the details of how they will operate is still unclear, as is the future of the 71 staff currently employed in the Springboard Units.

The main question now is; what is happening to the pupils who since last October have not been placed in Springboard units? The report states “that there has been no adverse impacts on exclusions indicating that the risk of exclusions arising from the pupils is low” – so the question is, if no admissions have been made to Springboard units, and subsequently there have been no additional exclusions as a result of this, then one has to ask is there either a need for Springboard, or the proposed Learning & Behaviour Partnerships or is the report playing down the effect on the non-admissions to Springboard units on the schools?

We are very concerned as what provision is being supplied to those not admitted to Springboard units from last October to the time when the new Behaviour and Attendance Partnerships are fully up and running next year and what effect this is having on our schools at present.