This Access to Information request (on the Devon County Council website) sheds some light on the stark differences in cost when a child leaves mainstream education to attend a Pupil Referral Unit – for weeks or months. £77 per week vs £596. Also see how the numbers attending are creeping steadily up – and this is Primary provision only.
Giving children and their families, and schools, access to timely support when first needed is the common-sense approach. The alternative – waiting until years of damaging behaviour have taken their toll, not only on the individual child and her/his family, but also the children they have shared a classroom and school with and the teachers and support staff who have attempted to manage their behaviour, and then moving the child to alternative provision – appears to be gradually becoming ‘normal’.
See the stats here.