Focusing on student and family health

scameron — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:13:37 +0100

Background

Multi-agency child protection: a case study

scameron — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:03:26 +0100

Jason is 14, nearly 15 and until a few weeks ago had been meeting an older man who he met on the internet.

School first raised concerns. Jason’s attendance was below 50%. The education social worker tried hard to engage with Jason, visiting him at home and occasionally managing to get him into school. However, Jason started leaving home before the social worker arrived and it was getting more difficult to catch him there.

A day in the life of a youth intervention officer

scameron — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:11:04 +0100

Background to my role
Eighteen years, several stone and no grey hairs ago, I joined the Avon and Somerset Constabulary. A young, impressionable and enthusiastic police constable about to set forth into the big, bad world to right wrongs, administer justice and change the planet! It seems like yesterday but time has moved on and things have changed.

The workings of a multi-professional team

scameron — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:02:58 +0000

The aim of our multi-professional team (MPT) is to service the needs of its learners and support them in reaching their full potential, both educationally and socially. The development of this team fits the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda, contributing to all five ECM outcomes.

The MPT was set up in the large secondary school where I work in 2007 and includes the education welfare officer, Sencos, learning mentors, pastoral staff and me, the family social worker. The MPT was the brainchild of the school’s principal and has full support from the senior management team.

Remembering child protection with older young people

scameron — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:30:59 +0000

Newcastle’s Safeguarding Children Board has recently published a serious case review in respect of a 16-year-old girl. To review the death of a young person of this age is an unusual step and this particular review highlights some of the dilemmas faced by professionals in respect of teenagers who are not quite old enough to be of concern to adult services. Child protection law defines a child as a person up to the age of 18 but there seems to be increasing difficulty in recognising the teenager as in need of child protection.

Dealing with fabricated or induced illnesses

scameron — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:43:47 +0000

Revised guidance on managing cases of fabricated illness has been published to bring previous guidance into line with Working Together to Safeguard Children: A Guide to Inter-agency Working to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children (HM Government 2006) and the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (Department of Health et al, 2000).

The value of multi-agency working

scameron — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:21:39 +0000

One Friday night…

Lessons to be learned from child deaths and injury through abuse and neglect

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:58 +0100

The DCSF has recently published Analysing Child Deaths and Serious Injury through Abuse and Neglect: What Can We Learn? A Biennial Analysis of Serious Case Reviews 2003-2005.

Serious case reviews are carried out when abuse and neglect are known or suspected factors when a child dies (or is seriously injured or harmed). This is the third biennial analysis and involved a near-total sample of 161 cases.

Meeting the community's needs

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:58 +0100

Background

A day in the life of a schools counsellor

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:58 +0100

I am a counsellor working two days a week in Kenton Secondary School in Newcastle upon Tyne. I commenced this role in 2003 and work with young people to support them in addressing the emotional and behavioural difficulties that are affecting their learning and quality of life. My role in school is funded partly by Connexions and partly by the school.

Understanding and preventing exclusion

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:54 +0100

It goes without saying that the best way to reduce exclusions is to ensure that the students behave well and are taught effectively. As all of us who work in education know, there are some students that present massive challenges to the system and provision has to be made for them.

Extended services across a cluster

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:53 +0100

This case study outlines the work that has been undertaken to ensure that our extended schools provision is strategic and joined up in reality, not just rhetoric. It also explains what makes multi-agency collaboration work for us at Coleshill Heath and in other schools across North Solihull and looks at some of the innovative ways we have enhanced our delivery and ensured it is long term and part of a bigger picture. The box below sets out the background to the development of extended schools provision in North Solihull.

A day in the life of a youth justice worker

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:53 +0100

I work for the youth offending team and I am the early intervention youth justice worker. I’m based at Hailsham Community College, which just so happens to be my old secondary school! It is a specialist sports college and a full service extended school that houses a number of agencies, including the youth offending team, police, Connexions, nurse, social services, counsellors, out-of-school-hours manager, community sports development officer, educational welfare officer, traveller education service, etc.

Why SENCOs need to understand and use the Common Assessment Framework

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:51 +0100

Following the Children’s Act 2004 every local authority should now have reorganised its services for children and young people, merging elements of social care with education and promoting closer links to health and other relevant services.

The risk of any child failing to achieve one or more of the five Every Child Matters outcomes should now be a key indicator of vulnerability that all services, including education, will use to determine the need for specialist intervention.

Support for all: extended and outreach services

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:51 +0100

Priory School and the Borough of Barnsley

Improving children’s safety: new public service agreement

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:48 +0100

The government has recently published a public service agreement (PSA) specific to improving children’s safety. This document recognises the work that government departments are committed to and sets out the agreed expectations on LAs, local safeguarding children’s boards (LSCBs) and partner agencies. The government introduced PSAs following the 1998 comprehensive spending review, setting out for the first time what each department aimed to achieve in terms of targets for public service improvements.

Plans for supporting disabled children and their families

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:34 +0100

The 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) has been informed by a series of policy reviews. Aiming High for Disabled Children: Better Support for Families, published in May, supplements an earlier, more general, review of support for disadvantaged families: Aiming High for Children: Supporting Families, published in March.

Engaging effectively with outside agencies

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:34 +0100

The Children’s Act of 2004 has put the child at the centre of the community. It encapsulates the Every Child Matters agenda, in which the DfES obliges schools to ensure that children are healthy, safe, enjoying and achieving, able to achieve economic wellbeing and making a positive contribution to society.

Extended services – the inside story

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:34 +0100

Hengrove Community Arts College is a mixed school for students aged 11-19. It is located in South Bristol and serves one of the most deprived areas in the country.

Just over three years ago (January 2004) it went into special measures. At that time the key issues facing the college included to:

Legal case notes: Emergency care orders

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:33 +0100

An Emergency Protection Order (EPO) authorises a local authority to remove a child to accommodation provided by the local authority and keep him there. The court may make an EPO only if it is satisfied that there is reasonable cause to believe that a child is likely to suffer significant harm if he is not removed immediately to accommodation provided by it.

Bridging the gap between health and the early years

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:32 +0100

Background to the project
As health visitor assistants working with a team of health visitors in an area of diverse health and social needs we feel that a healthy lifestyle is not just about having nutritious food, being illness free, and physically fit. It is also about having a sense of wellbeing and gaining the skills needed to be a confident, useful member of society.

Child protection and safeguarding - training requirements

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:31 +0100

In this article I look at which staff need to be trained in child protection and what training is appropriate for each grouping. I suggest a minimum standard awareness course, based on one I have successfully used in whole-school training and I set out principles which are important for all staff to be aware of in fulfilling their safeguarding role.

Government guidance on training for education staff

Legal case notes: Section 37 report and youth advocacy

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:29 +0100

The facts

The parents of two boys, D aged nine and E aged seven, separated. The father took the boys to his brother’s home. The police were involved, and E was returned to the mother. Proceedings were commenced, and the father was ordered to return D to the mother, but D refused to return to her.

Information sharing: has the new guidance lifted the fog?

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:28 +0100

We all know that sharing relevant information about children is essential, not only to protect them from harm, but also to promote their welfare and to ensure that children and young people with additional needs get the services they require. The government appreciated the importance of information sharing and made it the cornerstone of its Every Child Matters strategy.

Delivering early years services

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:28 +0100

The provision of childcare and early education lies at the heart of all the initiatives for providing services for children and families to fulfil the aspirations of the Every Child Matters: Change for Children Programme.

What is ContactPoint?

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:25 +0100

The government intends to introduce a new way of sharing information about children who are receiving a variety of services. This new system has previously been referred to as the ‘Information Sharing Index’ but will now be known as ContactPoint.

Domestic violence and parental substance misuse

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:24 +0100

There is a considerable body of research which shows children who grow up in families where there is domestic violence and/or parental alcohol or drug misuse are at increased risk of significant harm.

New Relationship with Schools

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:22 +0100

September 2005 saw the implementation of the new relationship with schools (NRwS) with its key focus on self-evaluation and improvement planning, the advent of school improvement partners (SIP) and the introduction of the shorter inspection model. All of these were linked in a programme which, when operated successfully, should empower schools to operate an effective cycle of planning, doing and reviewing with the challenge and support of the SIP and regular validation of review outcomes by Ofsted.

Building a learning organisation

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:18 +0100

My organisation is currently contracted to provide workforce development for the new healthy schools scheme. Together with people at the Department of Health, we are determined to try and put back some of the work on adult emotional health and wellbeing that seemed to become lost as healthy schools moved on. For me, taking care of the adults working with young people is the first and foremost task. Sometimes, though, it seems as if it is the last one.

Integrating children's services through schools

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:16 +0100

New requirements for professional practice and managerial action often spring from the political reaction to public scandals. In Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss’s 1988 Cleveland inquiry the failure of professional collaboration was pinpointed. The 1989 Children Act that followed required professionals to ‘work together better’. It took the shocking results of Lord Laming’s inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié, and the 2004 Children Act, for parliament to prescribe professional integration as the cure.

Young people at risk of abuse through prostitution

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:15 +0100

The sad events in Ipswich, at the end of 2006, brought the issue of sexual abuse through prostitution into sharp focus. The press photographs of the five murdered young women, all reported to be selling their bodies for sex, tell little of their lives.

Counselling: a powerful but limited tool

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:15 +0100

You may already provide strong pastoral support at your school. The current push to develop Healthy Schools has enormous potential for increasing pupils’ feelings of wellbeing and competence to cope with pressure and adversity.

Student mental health and wellbeing in further education

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:14 +0100

The 14-19 Education and Skills white paper and initiatives such as the Increased Flexibility for 14-16-Year-Olds Programme have meant that colleges of further education are working with greater numbers of young people from a wider range of backgrounds.

Dealing with child protection issues: coping with involvement

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:13 +0100

Names and details have been changed to protect anonymity

Good practice in joined-up assessment

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:12 +0100

Children with significant and complex health needs and/or disabilities and their families are often in contact with a wide range of different agencies, and subject to multiple assessments. New research based on six case studies examines a range of different models for joined-up assessment and work with children and young people with significant and complex health needs and/or disabilities.

Gifted and talented in Northern Ireland

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:12 +0100

Being a ‘spector’

Every Child Matters: taking disability seriously

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:09 +0100

An important new campaign, Every Disabled Child Matters, was launched by four organisations – Contact a Family, Council for Disabled Children, Mencap and the Special Educational Consortium – at a well attended fringe meeting during the Labour party’s autumn conference. The need for such a campaign is long overdue, reflecting failings in the provision of services for disabled children identified in a report published by the Audit Commission in 2003:

Study suggests changes for contribution of EPs in new children's services

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:09 +0100

For educational psychologists as for SENCOs, the Every Child Matters agenda has many implications for future roles and responsibilities. A recent study for the DfES* examines the views of a range of stakeholders as to the distinctive contribution that educational psychologists (EPs ) can make in the newly established children’s services, where there is an increased emphasis on multi-agency working and on the facilities and barriers that may exist.

Too heavily involved in SEN assessment

Introducing Every Child Matters - routes through the curriculum

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:08 +0100

Every Child Matters encompasses principles that few would argue with as being what all involved with the care and education of young people should strive for. But three years in, are schools succeeding in putting ECM into practice to full effect? This month’s Case in Point investigates.

More encouragement for extended schools

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:05 +0100

Planning and funding extended schools, follows on from the prospectus, Access to services and opportunities for all, issued in June last year.

Every Child Matters: how can headteachers lead change?

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:55 +0100

This article describes how a multi-agency group of headteachers, social workers and health practitioners in Bexley designed a new approach to the integrated team working promoted by Every Child Matters.

Services working together

Extended schools and the community schools movement

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:52 +0100

A man goes up to a bar. He asks for six pints of bitter. The barman says: ‘Do you want a tray with these?’ The man says, ‘For goodness sake, I’ve got six pints of beer to carry.’

Does this extract from a BBC broadcast sound familiar? The extended schools idea could be a tray…

Every Child Matters: the Common Assessment Framework

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:52 +0100

The thinking behind Every Child Matters is not new and it should not mean any radical shifts in policies or drastic changes. It is really about rationalising how we work with pupils and their parents and bringing together all the other agencies that can be used to help.

This is where the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) comes in. The CAF is being introduced in all LEAs between April 2006 and December 2008. You may be familiar with the process because your school may already be piloting it.

Can SENCOs help local authorities decide what SEN might mean?

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:50 +0100

In one sense, there is no group of children ‘out there’, as it were, for whom it can be universally agreed that they have SEN and for whom special education might be appropriate. One reason is that providing special education with its preferential funding is socially, economically and politically influenced and this in turn is related to the difficulty of identifying at least some types of SEN.

Child abuse linked to accusations of 'possession' and 'witchcraft'

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:50 +0100

The report concludes that the number of cases of child abuse linked to accusations of ‘possession’ and ‘witchcraft’ is small compared to the total number of children known to be abused each year but that the effects on the family and the victim are ‘devastating’ and that the children and their siblings invariably need long-term foster care.

Multi-agency working

Integrated working using the CAF

Revised Working Together guidance and your school (2)

Making multi-agency working easier

Organising and chairing multi-agency meetings

Multi-agency working with a focus on SEN

Focusing on student and family health

Multi-agency child protection: a case study

A day in the life of a youth intervention officer

The workings of a multi-professional team

Remembering child protection with older young people

Dealing with fabricated or induced illnesses

The value of multi-agency working

Lessons to be learned from child deaths and injury through abuse and neglect

Meeting the community's needs

A day in the life of a schools counsellor

Understanding and preventing exclusion

Extended services across a cluster

A day in the life of a youth justice worker

Why SENCOs need to understand and use the Common Assessment Framework

Support for all: extended and outreach services

Improving children’s safety: new public service agreement

Plans for supporting disabled children and their families

Engaging effectively with outside agencies

Extended services – the inside story

Legal case notes: Emergency care orders

Bridging the gap between health and the early years

Child protection and safeguarding - training requirements

Legal case notes: Section 37 report and youth advocacy

Information sharing: has the new guidance lifted the fog?

Delivering early years services

What is ContactPoint?

Domestic violence and parental substance misuse

New Relationship with Schools

Building a learning organisation

Integrating children's services through schools

Young people at risk of abuse through prostitution

Counselling: a powerful but limited tool

Student mental health and wellbeing in further education

Dealing with child protection issues: coping with involvement

Good practice in joined-up assessment

Gifted and talented in Northern Ireland

Every Child Matters: taking disability seriously

Study suggests changes for contribution of EPs in new children's services

Introducing Every Child Matters - routes through the curriculum

More encouragement for extended schools

Every Child Matters: how can headteachers lead change?

Extended schools and the community schools movement

Every Child Matters: the Common Assessment Framework

Can SENCOs help local authorities decide what SEN might mean?

Child abuse linked to accusations of 'possession' and 'witchcraft'