EDUCATION chiefs in Darlington are drawing up an action plan following criticism from Government inspectors.

The first inspection of Darlington Borough Council's education department by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) revealed it had more strengths than weaknesses.

But council officers have put together an 18-point plan featuring recommendations to counteract items of concern,which will go before councillors on Tuesday.

A variety of problems are being looked at, including education for excluded pupils, child protection, achievement of ethnic minority pupils and dealing with racial incidents.

Ofsted's inspection report was produced in June and, normally, the local education authority has 70 days to finalise its plan of action.

However, this does not include school holiday periods, so the plan must be finalised by the council by November 7 and presented to the Department for Education and Skills.

Areas of recommendation in the draft report include improving access to education and better social inclusion; improving monitoring, support, challenge and intervention; support for schools causing concern, improving provision for special educational needs; improving strategic management and improving political scrutiny and performance management arrangements.

Councillor Eleanor Lister, cabinet member for education, said: "Our Ofsted report highlighted many areas where we had done well and it also noted areas where we needed to improve.

"We are looking for improvement from across the board and, while the action plan sets out how we will go about making improvements in those areas, we will also be looking to improve in areas where we have been performing well."

The draft plan will be discussed by the council's lifelong learning scrutiny committee on Tuesday.