I WRITE in response to Brian Derbyshire's letter relating to the proposal for a pupil referral unit at the old police station in Westhoughton.

The PRU is an early intervention centre for young people at risk of exclusion from the West Bolton area - the idea is to begin working with local young people before they get into very serious trouble, and to help them to see that by working hard they can improve their behaviour and their learning and thereby improve their life chances and their local community.

This accommodation will provide the young people with much better facilities and space than the current PRUs can and, in addition, the young people will still be on the roll of their local school, and when they are ready they can be re-integrated back into their own school in their own community.

The initiative is being planned in full partnership with local high schools who are fully committed to this development and are looking to put some of their own funding to further develop the opportunities available to young people in their area.

The young people who will benefit from this initiative are all from West Bolton and will be between 11 and 16 years of age - the majority of them will be 11 to 14 year olds.

They will be at the PRU during school hours for a short period of time during which they will receive intensive support from a highly trained group of teachers and support staff.

The staffing ratios will be very good compared to children in schools, with six adults working with around 20 young people at any one time.

During this time the young people are at the PRU, they will remain on the roll of their local high school. The high school and elected members will be represented on the management committee of the PRU to make sure it operates effectively and efficiently.

The Westhoughton proposal is for an early intervention PRU. We have made other provision for older pupils (14 to 16 year olds) who are getting into more serious trouble, such as those who have been permanently excluded from schools on several occasions, or those that are involved with the youth offending team, in our very successful town centre-based longer term PRUs.

The letter from Mr Derbyshire also mentions using the Forward Centre. There is very little surplus space at the Forward Centre, and previous experience shows that it is not a good idea to put these older students with the much younger children (7 to11 year olds).

Finally, it is important to recognise that these are local young people from that community, and it is in everybody's interest to try to re-engage them in learning and to reconnect them with their own community.

Margaret Blenkinsop, Director of Children's Services