Written question asked by Ashok Kumar (Labour) on Wednesday, 30 April 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 12 May 2003. It was answered by Ivan Lewis (Labour) on Monday, 12 May 2003 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Dept for Education and Skills

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, if he will make a statement on the performance of behaviour improvement programme experts in addressing disruptive students.

Answer: Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the performance of behaviour improvement programme experts in addressing disruptive students. [111649] Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Behaviour Improvement Programme (BIP) currently runs in 61 LEA areas, and involves extra funding for measures to tackle behaviour and attendance issues in schools where they present a significant threat to standards. Participating schools and authorities have used the funding to provide a range of additional staff including professionals working as part of school-based multi-agency teams, and dedicated staff to mentor and support pupils with problems. Additional funding has also been used to enable a member of the senior management team to focus on whole school behaviour and attendance issues. Early findings from the two-year independent evaluation of BIP show classroom disruption, as measured by exclusions, decreasing. Further results will allow us to judge which staff and which models of intervention had the most impact on the target group.

Secondary information