Intensive Wraparound Service

T i e ak Ku te R ra Awhina Ora o

Te Kahu Toi Intensive Wraparound Service Information Sheet

The new educational service will provide an intensive wraparound service for children and young people with behavioural and complex needs in the care of Child, Youth and Family (CYF) in Auckland at two specific CYF contracted providers, Youth Link and Youth Horizons Trust. An assessment hub is being established and staffed in south Auckland. The Northern Health School will run this educational service including employing the staff, providing educational, staff and administrative management for the assessment hub. This is a service for children and young people with behavioural and complex needs that has not been available to them before.

(a) An assessment hub called Te Kahu Toi Assessment Hub is being established as an additional satellite to the Northern Health School. There will be 4-5 children or young people in the hub at any time. They will be assessed and a plan developed with the aim of getting them into mainstream education. They will potentially be in the hub for up to a term.

(b) While at the assessment hub each child and young person will receive a psychological and educational assessment.

(c) An assessment system will be in place depending on the child or young person’s need. This will lead to a plan being developed for a limited service, a full intensive wraparound plan or support from the Ministry of Education’s Severe Behaviour Service.

(d) The Northern Health School will enrol the children and young people while they receive an education at the hub or return to the hub if their school placement ends.

(e) A total of up to 50 children per school year will receive support from this service.

(f) The Board of the Northern Health School will employ the 10.5 staff required to staff the hub.

(g) Ongoing administration, staffing and associated costs will be overseen and managed by the Board of the Northern Health School.

1 | P a g e The Assessment Hub- Te Kahu Toi

The name of the assessment hub Te Kahu Toi is based on a metaphor relating to korowai or cloak made from fibre from the New Zealand cabbage tree. It symbolically represents a service for young people and their whānau aimed at providing strength and resilience. It is through the interweaving of collective information, ideas and skills we form a korowai or protective cloak. This wraparound of strength, protection and pride represents the potential mana going forward in a personalised protective manner, a hikoi of learning and development for all involved.

Enrolment Information

Purpose of Enrolment

Students, residing in Auckland, may be enrolled at the Te Kahu Toi assessment hub, a special unit of the Northern Health School if they

(a) are in the care of the Chief Executive of Child Youth and Family, and

(b) are referred by Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) that are contracted to provide care for these children and young people. The specific NGOs that will refer the children are Youth Link and Youth Horizons Trust in Auckland, and

(c) are in years 7 – 13 of schooling at the time of enrolment, and

(d) present with ongoing and severe challenging social/emotional behaviours and have an underlying intellectual impairment, and

(e) If a child under year 7 meets enrolment criteria then it can be enrolled subject to agreement by the National Manager Intensive Wraparound Service, Ministry of Education.

Enrolment Process

Enrolment referrals will be made by the staff of CYF, YouthLink or Youth Horizons Trust by liaising with the Manager of the Te Kahu Toi assessment hub.

Regular meetings will be held between the Manager of Te Kahu Toi and the NGOs to ensure that all are prepared and informed about the child or young person prior to enrolment acceptance.

The Northern Health School will enrol children and young people that are to be assessed in the hub that has been specifically set up for this purpose.

The Northern Health School will meet the Ministry of Education’s legal enrolment requirements.

2 | P a g e The Te Kahu Toi assessment hub will have trained and experienced teacher(s) and will provide an education that meets curriculum requirements.

The time each student potentially spends at Te Kahu Toi will depend on the development of their individualised plan and the ability to place them in a mainstream setting. It is expected that this will not be in excess of one school term. It is accepted that students whose placement is not initially successful will return to the Te Kahu Toi hub at times.

The Ministry of Education’s Intensive Wraparound Service (IWS) will oversee and ensure there is practice support, monitor quality and reporting on the child’s plan and progress.

Northern Health School

The Northern Health School is one of three regional health schools (RHS) that were established to ensure that students with high health needs receive equitable education provision irrespective of where the health services are delivered or the geographic location of students.

RHS are responsible for planning and managing the delivery of the education programme in collaboration with regular schools, health professionals, Te Kura, where appropriate, and the student’s parent/caregiver

Background Information

There are approximately 2,500 children and young people who come into the care of the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) every year and are placed in CYF care. A small number of these children and young people are considered to have high needs.

The Minister agreed in December 2012 that the Ministry of Education should continue to develop a new education model for children and young people in the Auckland region, who are in the care of the Chief Executive of Child, Youth and Family and in specialist care placements. The Minister’s preference was to:

Develop a service that allows learners to be placed in education settings which best meet their individual needs. Assessment prior to placement would take place in an Assessment Centre attached to an Education Hub. The aim would be to transition learners into regular schooling settings with suitable wraparound support.

Since then the Ministry has continued to work closely with CYF to pilot a newly developed education model with a small group of students (4) to better understand the benefits and risks associated with this approach. Positive outcomes have been achieved for most of the students in the pilot. Benefits and risks have been identified through the pilot and it has helped to develop a range of protocols and understandings necessary for close agency work.

Intensive Wraparound Service

The IWS has been operational since 2010 as the Intensive Behaviour Service (IBS) and from 2012 it became the IWS. The IBS supported children with complex behavioural needs and from 2012 it has included children and young people with complex behavioural needs as well as those with an intellectual

3 | P a g e impairment. It is part of a continuum of supports available for children with complex needs.

The Ministry funds and delivers IWS which operates in collaboration with other education sector organisations, NGOs, community and whānau. The aim is to:  encourage pro-social behaviour  provide support to teachers, family/whānau and the community to achieve positive outcomes for the child or young person  improve learner engagement and achievement. The diagram below demonstrates how IWS delivers services for the smaller number of high and complex needs learners. This project will adhere to the same philosophy by addressing the children’s needs in a collaborative way.

4 | P a g e