A FULL-TIME education should be provided for every pupil excluded from a Wiltshire school by the end of the year.

The Government is keen to crack down on street crime and truancy, and now the Department of Education and Skills requires the Local Education Authority to put a plan in place.

Between 100 and 200 young people in the county are excluded at any time 30 to 40 per cent of whom are not at school because of their medical needs.

Previously each one had five hours a week one-to-one tuition.

Now new centres are being set up in Devizes, Chippenham, Trowbridge and Salisbury where youngsters can receive a full-time education together.

Around 11 new staff will be recruited using the money previously used for individual tuition.

The system is expected to be fully operational from January 2003.

The education of excluded children currently costs around £500,000 a year.

The county council also wants to keep the number of permanent exclusions to a minimum, and to reduce the length of time pupils spend out of mainstream schools.

Chief Education Officer Bob Wolfson reported to the Education Advisory Panel last week that recruiting new staff and the restructuring of the LEA had caused delays in the new scheme.

The service will be fine-tuned over the next year including the development of a Key Stage 3 curriculum that gives young people every chance to keep up with and rejoin their fellow pupils in schools.