Local authority leadership

* Clear corporate policies for social inclusion.

* Authority-wide educational policies should consistently make clear links between effective behaviour management, effective learning and teaching, and well-judged use of curriculum flexibility.

* Staged assessment and intervention, linking assessment and intervention.

* Suitable access to a range of specialist provision and support for schools, including specialist support staff, on-site support bases or units, and good off-site provision.

* Effective systems for disseminating good practice across schools and other agencies.

* High-quality staff development on learning and teaching and behaviour management for teaching and auxiliary staff.

Action in schools * Strong leadership from all staff to ensure a consistently high quality of learning and teaching and achievement for all pupils.

* Arrangements for regularly and conspicuously celebrating pupil achievement.

* Procedures for reinforcing good behaviour and for dealing with indiscipline which are clearly articulated, implemented consistently and evaluated systematically.

* Effective action to address any unusually high levels of problems in particular classes or departments.

* Curriculum flexibility used effectively to avoid pupils becoming disengaged and disaffected, while still challenging them educationally.

* Support for staff in developing their approaches to learning and teaching, drawing on and disseminating their best practice.

* Class teachers well trained in implementing appropriate techniques for promoting and maintaining positive behaviour and who are supported quickly and effectively if major problems arise.

* Access for teachers to relevant information on vulnerable pupils.

* Effective support and advice for mainstream staff, through behaviour co-ordinators or others, aimed initially at helping them resolve problems in situ without the need to resort to more exclusive strategies.

* Access to a range of opportunities for all pupils so they can contribute to decision-making.

Responding to challenging behaviour * Effective early intervention arrangements so that the care and educational needs of pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties are addressed at an early stage.

* Headteachers and other managers of services at local level agree a system of staged assessment and intervention to ensure additional support in classes for individual pupils presenting persistent behavioural problems.

* Additional support outwith the mainstream class in a unit or base or in off-site provision, but maintaining as high a level of inclusion within the mainstream as is appropriate.

* Effective partnership working at local level among a range of professional agencies, based on agreed contributions from each.