Children S & Young People S Residential Services

EDUCATION STANDARD POLICY & PROCEDURE

Children’s & Young People’s Residential Services

Xxxx Policy/procedure: Issue date: Version No: 1.0

Status: Approved Review date: Page 1 of 17 Policy Control/Monitoring

Version: 1.0 Approved by: (Name/Position in Organisation)

Date: Accountability: Chief Executive, Percy Hedley Foundation (Name/Position in Organisation)

Author of policy: Barbara Bolam (Name/Position in organisation) Head of Residential Services Date issued: August 2015

Revision Cycle: Annual

Revised (Date): August 2016

Target audience: All staff within Children & young People’s Residential Services Amendments/additions

Replaces/supersedes: All previous residential policies and procedures

Status: Approved Review date: Page 2 of 17 Associated Policies:  Children’s Wishes and Feelings standard (insert hyperlinks)  The quality and Purpose of Care Standard  The Enjoyment and Achievement Standard  The Health and Well-being Standard  The Positive Relationships Standard Associated National Guidance  The Protection of Children Standard  The Leadership and Management Standard  The Care Planning standard  The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015  Promoting the Health and well-being of Looked After Children  Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015 The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations March 2010

Document status This document is controlled electronically and shall be deemed an uncontrolled documented if printed. The document can only be classed as ‘Live’ on the date of print. Please refer to the staff login section of the internet for the most up to date version.

Equality Impact Assessment

This document forms part of Percy Hedley’s commitment to create a positive culture of respect for all staff and service users. The intention is to identify, remove or minimise discriminatory practice in relation to the protected characteristics (race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, age, religious or other belief, marriage and civil partnership, gender reassignment and pregnancy and maternity), as well as to promote positive practice and value the diversity of all individuals and communities. As part of its development this document and its impact on equality has been analysed and no detriment identified.

Version Control Tracker

Status: Approved Review date: Page 3 of 17 Version Author/ Comment/Reason for Issue/Ap Date Status Number Title proving Body

Roles & Responsibilities The following roles will have specific areas of responsibility for this policy:- (add/delete as appropriate) Role Responsibility

Overall responsibility to ensure this policy conforms to Chief Executive current guidelines and best practice. Ensuring resources and infrastructure are available to allow its implementation. To achieve a safe working environment which includes Safe storage of medicines, correct documentation and safe administration. Director of Human Resources Ensure effective implementation of this policy. Ensure a Department current list of all policies is available to all staff. Review dates of policy reviews and notify accountable person of policy. Head of Service/Head of Ensure effective implementation of this policy. Ensure a department current list of all policies is available to all staff. Review dates of policy reviews and notify accountable person of policy. Training Development Officer Support line managers to develop training needs analysis and develop training plan for staff identified as requiring training. Procure and evaluate training and development to enable staff to provide safe care with medication. Provide an overview to the exec team on current position of training and development across the organisation. Health and Safety Manager Monitor incidents and complaints and near misses in relation to this policy. Report to audit committee. Provide risk assessment training to staff to support this policy.

Status: Approved Review date: Page 4 of 17 CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Purpose

3. Scope

4. Definitions/Abbreviations

5. Principles

6. Monitoring and Compliance

7. Education, Health Care Plans

7.1 Education procedure

7.2 EHC Plans for 19 – 25 year olds

8. PEP (Personal Education Plans)

9. Pupil Premium

10.Personal Budgets

11.Virtual Head of Schools

12.Use of Data and Record Keeping

Status: Approved Review date: Page 5 of 17 1. Introduction

The Children and Families Act 2014 takes forward the coalition government’s commitment to improve services for vulnerable children and support strong families. It reinforces wider reforms to ensure that all children and young people can succeed, no matter what their background.

The new Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice will play a vital role in underpinning the major reform programme. The hope is that children/young people who have a disability and special educational needs will be picked up at the earliest point with support and services available to them in a timely manner and that parents/carer’s participate as fully as possible in decisions, and are provided with the information and support necessary to participate in those decisions.

Local Authorities and their local health partners have been working together to prepare for the new arrangements, to jointly plan and commission services for children/young people who have special educational needs or are disabled. Those children/young people with more complex needs will have an integrated assessment and where appropriate single Education, Health and Care plan for their support.

It is also expected that Local authorities must ensure that the EHC plan review at Year 9, and every year thereafter, includes a focus on the transition to adult care and that support is well planned. It should be integrated with the annual reviews of the EHC plans and reflects existing special educational and health provision that is in place to help the young person prepare for adulthood.

2. Purpose

Residential Services recognises the importance of maximising each child/young person’s educational and personal development through the provision of a 24 hour curriculum which is characterised by breadth, balance relevance, differentiation and continuity. Individual planning and ongoing monitoring of children/young people’s progress is recorded within individual personalised files.

Status: Approved Review date: Page 6 of 17 3. Scope This policy will apply to employees working within Children’s & Young Peoples Residential Services and employed by the Foundation under a contract of employment.

This document will be made available to all employees who are engaged in Residential Services who will then be expected to familiarise themselves with the principles covered within this policy.

4. Definitions /Abbreviations

VSH (Virtual Head of Schools) The virtual head of school is an officer of a local authority who leads a virtual team that tracks the progress of children/young people looked after by the local authority.

PEP (Personal Education Plan) An element of a care plan maintained by a local authority in respect of a Looked after child, which sets out the education needs of the child.

Pupil Premium The pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and their peers. Pupil premium funding is available to: local authority maintained schools, including special schools and pupil referral units ( PRUs)

Personal Budgets A personal budget is an amount of money identified by the local authority to deliver provision set out in an EHC plan where the parent/ young person is involved in securing that provision. The funds can be held directly by the parent/young person or managed on their behalf by the local authority, school/college.

EHC Plans (Education, Health Care Plan) An EHC [plan details the education, health and social care support that is to be provided to a child/young person who has SEN or a disability.

Status: Approved Review date: Page 7 of 17 5. Principles The guiding principles of the policy are:-

 The home will give appropriate attention to each child/young person’s special needs identified in their Statement of Special Educational Statement / Education, Health and Care plans (EHC).

 Provide maximum opportunities that are tailored to meet children/young people’s individual needs.

 Ensure specialist support and equipment is available for each child/young person as required.

 Celebrate each child/young person’s achievements and record progression.

 To work in partnership with school to ensure consistent approaches.

 Ensure a smooth transition into adulthood which includes careful planning and preparation at an early stage.

 Establish and maintain strong working relationships with parents, outside agencies and other professionals to facilitate a holistic approach to each child/young person’s development.

6. Monitoring and Compliance

Overall responsibility for the operation of the policy lies with the Registered Manager/ Head of Residential Services. The effectiveness of the policy will be formally reviewed and monitored as a minimum on a 12 basis to ensure that it continues to meet the requirements of The Foundation, the specific service area and that it reflects best practice and statutory legislation as appropriate.

Status: Approved Review date: Page 8 of 17 7. EDUCATION, HEALTH CARE PLANS – GUIDANCE

From 1st September 2014 transitional arrangements will be in place to support the changeover from a Statement of Special Educational Needs to EHC Plans (Education, Health Care Plans). The EHC plans aim to provide more substantial help for children/young people through a unified approach that reaches across education, health care and social care needs.

The Children and Families Act 2014 places a statutory duty on Local Authorities to work with one another to assess local needs with a view to making sure that services work together where this promotes children and young people’s wellbeing or improves the quality of special educational provision. The whole process of EHC needs assessment and EHC plan development must be carried out in a timely manner. A local authority has 6 weeks to decide whether or not to carry out an EHC assessment. The assessment process must take no more than 20 weeks.

The following principles and requirements apply to local authorities and those contributing to the preparation of an EHC plan:

 Decisions about the content of EHC plans should be made openly and collaboratively with parents, children and young people. It should be clear how the child/young person has contributed to the plan and how their views are reflected in it.

 EHC plans should describe positively what the child/young person can do and has achieved.

 EHC plans should be clear and concise, understandable and accessible to parents/carers, children/young people, providers and practioners. They should be written so they can be understood by professionals in any local authority.

 In preparing the EHC plan the local authority must consider how best to achieve the outcomes sought for the child/young person. The Local Authority must also take into account the evidence received as part of the EHC assessment.

 EHC plans must specify the outcomes sought for the child/young person. Outcomes in EHC plans should be SMART targets.

 Where a young person or parent is seeking an innovative way to receive their support services – particularly through a Personal Budget, but not exclusively so – then the planning process should include the consideration of those

Status: Approved Review date: Page 9 of 17 solutions with support and advice available to assist the parent or young person in deciding how best to receive their support.

 EHC plans should show how education, health and care provision will be coordinated wherever possible to support the child/young person to achieve their outcomes. The plan should also show how the different types of provision contribute to specific outcomes.

 EHC plans should be forward looking – for example, anticipating, planning and commissioning for important transition points in a child/young person’s life, including planning and preparing for their transition into adult life.

 EHC plans should have a review date. (which should link to other regular reviews, including the child in need plan or child protection plan reviews if appropriate).

7.1 EDUCATION - PROCEDURE

 All staff members within residential services must have high educational aspirations for the children/young people in their care.

 Recognise the value of schooling not only to promote educational attainment, but also personal, social, emotional and behavioural development, and to act as a spring board for future life successes.

 Be committed and enthusiastic about the challenge of working together with children/young people, their families and those professionals involved with them, to support school attendance and encourage educational achievement.

Most importantly, all staff members within Residential Services recognise their role as corporate parents and aim to act and think in a way towards the children/young people they work with which is “at least what a good parent would do”.

To this end all staff within Bradbury View will adhere to the following guidance.

EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE FOR RESIDENTIAL SERVICE STAFF

Creating the Right Ethos

Make Education a priority  Display individual child/young person’stimetable  Show a keen interest in schoolwork on a daily basis. Be informed  Know who the key contacts are in school.  Display term dates and teacher training days.

Status: Approved Review date: Page 10 of 17 Have high expectations  Monitor progress and identify areas for development.  Encourage children/young people to have goals and plan for the future.

Dedicated education space  Have space where children/young people can study.  Provide books and specialist resources to support education.  Have a computer with internet access. Celebrate success and attainment  Provide rewards  Give praise and encouragement at every opportunity.  Acknowledge achievements  Share success with family and relevant professionals.

Day to day support

Preparation for school  Establish a morning routine to prepare for school.  Have correct uniform and personal equipment ready etc. Voca / I Pad. Be aware of any problems that may  Make contact with school if you think there arise may be a problem on a particular day. Be available during the day  Be available to take phone calls.  Be available to go in if necessary. Return from school  Take a genuine interest in what the child/young person has done.  Ask to look at diaries, check for homework and any requests for the next day. Homework  Encourage and support the completion of homework/individual programmes.  Offer direct assistance by sitting with the child/young person to help them complete the work/take part in a task e.g. physiotherapy.  Offer indirect assistance by arranging educational activities.  Build up knowledge of subjects the children/young people are involved in.  Don’t be afraid to ask other members of staff for guidance about an unknown subject. Be aware of other supports available  Encourage participation in out of school clubs and activities.  Ask for help from a tutor if you feel a

Status: Approved Review date: Page 11 of 17 child/young person studying for exams may benefit.

That bit extra

Educational activities  Organise visits to galleries, museums, theatres and sporting events.  Play games such as scrabble/lego?  Read together – magazines books etc Help with revision for exams  Know when the exams are and what will be in them.  Work out a revision timetable.  Help the young person get organised and structure their revision.  Make sure other residents respect and understand the pressure the young person doing exams may be under. Help prepare for the future  Know what the aspirations are for each young person.  Collect information that may help with planning for the future, such as prospectuses or job related literature.  Ensure Connexions are involved with young people. Attend events  Know when the consultation events are and make sure the young person has a representative to go.  Even if staff from the home do not attend get copies of reports, targets etc  Attend concerts, plays, fairs etc. if this is what the young person wishes.

Keeping Informed

Have a copy of the PEP to hand  Be involved in the PEP meeting.  Encourage the young person wherever reasonably possible to be involved in the meeting.  Know what the key educational, training or work issues are for each young person.  Be aware of the targets in the PEP.  Know what the role of residential staff is in working towards these targets.

Status: Approved Review date: Page 12 of 17 Know who is involved  Work in partnership with all professionals supporting the education of each young person.  Know who the key support staff are in school and what his/her roles are.  Know which outside agencies are involved and what their role is, such as RHELAC Team, Connexions, and Educational Psychology Service.

7.2 EHC PLANS FOR 19 – 25 YEAR OLDS

Young people with EHC plans may need longer in education in order to achieve their outcomes, and make an effective transition into adulthood. However, this position does not mean that there is an automatic entitlement to continued support at age 19 or5 and expectation that those with an EHC plan should remain in education until they are 25. A local authority may cease a plan for a 19 – 25 year old if it decides that it is no longer necessary for the EHC plan to be maintained. Such circumstances include where the young person no longer requires the special educational provision specified in their EHC plan.

8. PEP (Personal Education Plan) - PROCEDURE

It is the responsibility of the Social Worker to ensure that the PEP (Personal Education Plan) or Pathway Plan is up to date. The PEP is an integral part of the child/young person’s Care Plan and a statutory requirement, it records what needs to happen for the child/young person to enable them to fulfil their potential.

It will be staff’s responsibility to ensure that children/young people who are looked after by the local authority have the right to enjoy the same choices and access to educational opportunities as all other children/young people have. The PEP is the key to ensuring that children/young people:-

 Have their educational needs identified.

 Have support established to enable them to reach their educational targets.

 Can decide whether they want their teacher to attend their Statutory Review.

 Have an ongoing record of their education.

It is the responsibility for the social worker to arrange a date for the PEP within 7 days, to occur within 20 days of a young person coming into residential or changing to a new school. The PEP should be updated after 3 months and then every 6 months on the same time scale as the Statutory Care Reviews. For pupils with

Status: Approved Review date: Page 13 of 17 Special Educational Needs, good practice would link SEN reviews with PEP reviews and therefore reduce the number of meetings required.

The PEP covers four areas:-

1. An Achievement Record (academic or otherwise)

2. Identification of developmental and educational needs – short and long term development of skills, knowledge or subject areas and experiences.

3. Short term targets, including monitoring of progress.

4. Long term plans and aspirations – targets including progress, aspirations and career Plans.

9. PUPIL PREMIUM – GUIDANCE

Pupil Premium (PP) was introduced by the government in April 2011. A fundamental factor of academic achievement is poverty. Material deprivation can influence educational outcomes by reducing the educational resources that families can provide and by adversely affecting the home environment. Deprivation is commonly associated with other factors which can influence children’s outcomes: SEND, ill health, family stress, low levels of parental education and parental involvement in their child’s education, low levels of cultural and social capital and low aspirations.

As a result there is a wide gap nationally between the attainment of children/young people from deprived backgrounds including children who are looked after. Pupil Premium is given as a fixed amount. The Department for Education has stated that schools: ‘are free to spend the pupil premium as they see fit’. However, as with all public money the school will be required to spend the grant for the purpose that it was intended and will be held accountable.

Status: Approved Review date: Page 14 of 17 Within Residential / short break services the home will work in partnership with the school to identify any gaps in provision for children/young people who are looked after.

10. PERSONAL BUDGETS – GUIDANCE

Young people and parents/carers of children who have EHC Plans have the right to request a personal Budget, which may contain elements of education, social care and health funding. A Personal Budget is an amount of money identified by the local authority to deliver provision set out in an EHC plan where the parent/young person is involved in securing that provision. Local partners must set out their joint commissioning arrangements for agreeing Personal Budgets. They would need to agree a formal approach to making fair and equitable allocations of funding and should set out a local policy for Personal Budgets that includes:

 A description of the services across education, health and social care that currently lend themselves to the use of personal Budgets

 The mechanisms of control for funding available to parents/carers and young people including:

 Direct payments – where individuals receive the cash to contract, purchase and manage services themselves.

 An arrangement – whereby the local authority, school or college holds the funds and commissions the support specified in the EHC plan (these are sometimes called notional budgets)

 Third party arrangements – where funds (direct payments) are paid to and managed by an individual or organisation on behalf of the child’s parent or the young person.

 A combination of the above.

11. VIRTUAL SCHOOL HEADS (VSH) - PROCEDURE

It will be the keyworkers responsibility to make contact with the Virtual School Head in relation to a child who is deemed to be Looked After and in receipt of residential services. The new Children and Families Act makes the role of the Virtual School

Status: Approved Review date: Page 15 of 17 Head a statutory requirement for each local authority. All local authorities must have a virtual school head (VSH) in charge of promoting the educational achievement of the children looked after by the authority that appoints them. The Virtual School Head gives extra funding called Pupil Premium to assist in raising education from reception to year 11. Amount given will depend on age. The school will be accountable for this funding.

12. USE OF DATA AND RECORD KEEPING

The educational attainment of most children/young people with special educational needs is below national standards. However, the educational achievement of children/young people accessing residential / education services are outstanding overall. This is a direct result of the high quality of teaching and therapy delivered and the commitment to continuous development, improvement and high expectations, aspirations and partnership working.

This grade is supported by rigorous analysis of data. Children/young people have very low starting points on entry into education services. Data systems in school are far reaching and rigorous and accurately detail attainment and progress. This improves outcomes through detailed target setting, which underpins innovative curriculum design and development. Progress is maximised through individualised interventions and programs, leading to high levels of improved outcomes for children/young people. IASEND (and previously PIVATS) standardised assessment and examination results each provide rich information, which is analysed meticulously, in order to inform and target future school improvement and curriculum and therapy planning. Individual targets are created for children/young people through IASEND progress, EHC outcomes and therapy targets. Information relating to any child/young person not achieving their predicted targets or those making less than optimum progress is scruitinised and assessed by the by the AD (an EP), senior staff and the class team in order to identify and overcome difficulties. Therapists and teachers work and plan together to assess, monitor and evaluate progress and achievement. Targets are set for each child/young person that are suitably challenging and are monitored, recorded and tracked. Evidence is collated in children/young peoples’ Personalised Learning files held within school.

Status: Approved Review date: Page 16 of 17 Element Lead Tool Frequency Reporting Lead Person - Lead Person – Monitored Person Arrangement Act on Dissemination Recommendation of Lessons Learned E.g Adherence Policy Audit Annually Policy Author Policy Author to policy Author

Status: Approved Review date: Page 17 of 17