A new service will help schools to concentrate on the needs of vulnerable children.

The Education Inclusion Service has been created during a restructuring of Norfolk County Council's Children's Services Department.

The unit aims to pull together the council's support and challenge for schools, colleges and other providers when they work with children who are in care, from disadvantaged backgrounds, or otherwise judged to be vulnerable.

At yesterday's Children's Services Committee meeting, interim director Sheila Lock said this was an area which school inspectorate Ofsted was increasingly focusing on.

The news came as councillors heard about changes to its two-year Norfolk to Good and Great Programme, which cost £500,000 a year and targeted help at schools that were considered to require improvement so they could gain an Ofsted 'good' rating.

The programme, which has seen 80pc of schools that took part move up an Ofsted category, will receive less funding, but will now be open to schools that are both better and worse than those originally eligible to take part in the scheme.

From September, the programme will be known as Norfolk Better to Best.