QUITE rightly, aware that widespread truancy and rocketing school expulsions help to breed a criminally-inclined underclass, the government has launched efforts to reduce the levels of both by a third in the next four years.

But if the government is determined to ensure that children go to school, it seems that they are hardly being helped by Lancashire County Council.

For, against a storm of protest from police, teachers and trade unions, it has gone ahead with the controversial decision to end residential provision at three special hostels for disruptive pupils.

And despite putting up a smokescreen of ostensibly high-minded concern over the grounds for putting children into residential care in the first place, the county's basic case for taking this step is to save money.

Yet several arguments contest this and the reasoning for the ending of residential provision.

In the first place, it was the case that while these children are living at these hostels, they were at least getting the schooling that they were missing before.

Now, they may not.

For it is often the case that many excluded pupils get virtually no education at all - at best a few hours of expensive personal tuition at home or, if they are not truanting and roaming the streets, they may get some lessons at a special unit. We have seen the effects here in East Lancashire where schools are resorting to installing security fencing to keep out unsupervised excluded youngsters who turn up at their playgrounds and make trouble.

Obviously the police are well aware of the threat of increased trouble of this kind because of the shutting of the hostels' residential provision.

They objected to it because of the extra risk of vandalism and burglary.

And others also foresee long-term ill effects as a result - in that the savings the County is making in the move will be wiped out by the social services and the criminal justice system having to cope with both the adverse financial and community consequences.

Against a mountain of advice to the contrary, the County has made a short-sighted decision for short-term savings that will soon be lost.

It should reverse it before the damage is done.

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