Consideration for Family Engagement Officer Roles – Feedback
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RHONDDA CYNON TAF COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL CABINET 17th JUNE 2021 CONSIDERATION FOR FAMILY ENGAGEMENT OFFICER ROLES – FEEDBACK REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION AND INCLUSION SERVICES IN DISCUSSIONS WITH THE CABINET MEMBER FOR EDUCATION AND INCLUSION SERVICES (COUNCILLOR J ROSSER) Author: Daniel Williams, Head of Attendance and Wellbeing Service (Tel: 01443 744298) 1. PURPOSE OF THE REPORT 1.1 The purpose of this briefing is to consider the impact and potential extension of the Family Engagement Officer (FEO) pilot currently in six secondary/through schools to help tackle barriers to engagement in education. 2. RECOMMENDATIONS It is recommended that Members: 2.1 Note the information contained in the report. 2.2 Determine whether to agree to the extension of the Family Engagement Officer pilot programme in six secondary/through schools for an additional 12-month period until August 2021 2.3 Determine whether to agree to the introduction of a primary phase pilot for 24- months within thirteen primary schools. 3. REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS 3.1 The initial pilot within secondary/through schools was developed with a focus on improving attendance within these settings. However, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has made it extremely difficult to quantify whole school improvements in attendance particularly in quantitative terms. Feedback from schools has been very positive however and suggests that these roles have been very beneficial in overcoming the multiple barriers to learning and engagement. We therefore wish to extend the pilot to ascertain the wider improvement these roles can support. 3.2 We are requesting an extension of the pilot into primary settings due to the significant impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had. These roles have been vital in many settings to support communication and engagement with pupils and their families who have faced emotional and economic hardships as a result of the pandemic and the associated impact this had on education. We therefore wish to quantify the potential impact of these roles in thirteen primary settings. This will provide schools with enhanced capacity to engage with a range of agencies and vulnerable families to address barriers to school engagement. At the heart of this approach will be the building of positive relationships between the school, families and the community. These proposed family engagement roles will strengthen the capacity of schools to engage with families beyond the school gate, promoting multi-agency working and access to timely family support to overcome hardship and any barriers to children’s learning and engagement. There is well documented research evidence which highlights that family involvement is one of the strongest predictors of children’s school success, and that families play pivotal roles in their children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development from birth through adolescence. Nevertheless, many families require support to develop resilience and to overcome the multiple stress factors commonly associated with financial hardship so they are better placed to support their child’s learning and engagement in education. 4. BACKGROUND TO THE REPORT 4.1 In the academic year 2018/19, secondary school attendance (including special schools) in RCT declined 0.1% from the previous year to 92.8%. This is the lowest point since the 2012/13 academic year and placed RCT 22nd in the all-Wales attendance table. 4.2 As a result of declining figures in recent years, attendance was made a RCT priority. To ensure that the most vulnerable pupils are supported, the Education and Inclusion Services Directorate identified a model of best practice within our primary schools that was considered beneficial to supporting attendance in secondary settings, as well as enhancing relationships with parents/carers in our settings with the greatest engagement challenges. This model is based around the role of Family Engagement Officers and the proposal drew on the good practice that was evident in Glenboi Primary School. 4.3 On 13th February 2020, a proposal was approved by Cabinet to fund a pilot across six secondary/through schools. These schools, and their categorisation at the time, were: . Porth Community School (Red) . Aberdare Community School (Red) . Mountain Ash Comprehensive School (Amber) . Ferndale Community School (Amber) . Tonyrefail Community School (Yellow) . Ysgol Nantgwyn (Yellow). 4.4 The rationale for these six schools was a combination of attendance and deprivation data. They were the six lowest performing schools for secondary mainstream attendance in 2018/19, with five also being the lowest performing schools in the previous academic year as well. All but Porth Community School ranked in the five most deprived secondary/through schools when looking at datasets from the WIMD at the time of proposal. Porth Community School ranked 8th. The two schools falling in 6th and 7th place were Hawthorn High School and Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhondda. However, attendance at these schools was significantly higher than those chosen for inclusion in the 2018/19 academic year. 4.5 Cabinet approved £174,000 for the employment of the six positions with an April 2020-August 2021 window for the pilot to take place. As specified in the original proposal, the positions were to be managed by each school with a bespoke action plan created and reports being centrally monitored by Education and Inclusion Services. 5. DELIVERY AND OUTCOMES 5.1 Unfortunately, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and associated school closures, led to delays in some schools in the employment of their Family Engagement Officer and also led to the intended focus on attendance being somewhat shifted to deal with various new issues that schools were presented with and made data comparisons to previous academic years difficult to work with. 5.2 The delays in appointment were as a result of complexities surrounding appointment systems during lockdowns and the concern of some schools to appoint whilst in a situation where they could not utilise the Family Engagement Officer within the initial focus. 5.3 However, despite this, all six schools involved in the pilot have fed back the invaluable role that their Family Engagement Officer has played throughout their period of employment in key areas which are considered below. 5.4 Attendance 5.4.1 All schools identified cohorts within their settings to specifically target as a result of historic attendance concerns. This differed between schools where some identified whole year groups to target whilst others identified cohorts such as pupils identified as truants; persistent absentees (those under 80% attendance); eFSM pupils, pupils persistently late, etc. 5.4.2 All schools identified some improvement in attendance with individuals targeted but success rates differed from school to school as would be expected due to the differing community concerns throughout this period in relation to Covid-19 cases. The prevalence of community transmission is identifiable across the local authority via changes in attendance data which has affected all educational settings. 5.4.3 Particular successes in attendance have been seen across the board. For example, attendance in Ferndale Community School increased from 75.5% in Autumn Half Term 1 to 86.7% in Autumn Half Term 2. This is despite a surge of Covid-19 cases in late November and attendance for the first three weeks of the month was 90%. Ysgol Nantgwyn similarly increased attendance in the same timeframe by 3.9% with FEO individual pupil intervention showing a mean average increase in attendance of 32%. Tonyrefail Community School showed 66% of Year 11 pupils improved attendance from the commencement of school after the half term break up to 11th December in comparison to the first half term. 5.4.4 Porth Community School identified that, by disaggregating pupils who had needed to self-isolate, their persistent absentee figure (pupils below 80% attendance) reduced by 28 pupils from Autumn Term 2019/20 to Autumn Term 2020/21. 5.4.5 Aberdare Community School noted that late arrivals have decreased 2.3% from the same period two years ago and this is even evident across the same term in other settings as identified by Porth Community School who show a drop in late arrivals from 1.1% in the Autumn Half Term 1 to 0.3% in Autumn Half Term 2. 5.4.6 Porth Community School focused some of their FEO time to work closely with the school ALNCO to improve attendance in the school’s four Learning Support Classes. Even during the challenges that the pandemic has placed on attendance, this has shown significant results. Two classes improved attendance from the same period last year (34.2% and 17.0% increase), one class improved slightly (2.1%) and the fourth declined slightly (0.7%). 5.4.7 Targeted support mechanisms in Mountain Ash Comprehensive School have shown attainment improvements as well. A Year 11 key marginal group was identified and between two monitoring period the average Capped 9 score for the group increased from 350.9 to 363.2. 5.4.8 Schools also identified specific case studies where the FEO role has been instrumental in developing relationships, supporting families affected by Covid-19 and helping to increase attendance or distance learning engagement. These have been included in Appendix 1. 5.4.9 The pandemic has undoubtedly placed attendance at the forefront of issues within our educational settings, and despite the challenges, the above shows numerous instances where the FEO role has supported in this area. Lockdown periods and school closures have been difficult for settings and Education and Inclusion Services to effectively analyse attendance data at times but the FEO has been integral in wider key areas, beyond attendance rates, which is explored below. 5.5 Other Key Support Areas 5.5.1 When the initial proposal was drafted, the impact of Covid-19 on our schools and communities could not have been foreseen.