• Background - a College Merger

CARE LEAVERS EXEMPLARY CASE STUDY - THE WELSH CONTEXT NEATH PORT TALBOT COLLEGE GROUP • Background - A college merger In 2013 Neath Port Talbot College and Coleg Powys merged to form the NPTC Group which serves more than 270,000 residents across communities from South to North Wales and with around 23,000 students is one of the largest education providers in Wales. Covering over one-third of the land mass of Wales, it operates on four main centres: the Afan Campus, Brecon Beacons Campus, Neath Campus and Newtown Campus. The Group also has a range of other centres in cities and rural areas. This means that there are approximately 100 miles between the furthest campus north and the furthest campus south. The four main campuses of the NPTC Group between them provide a wide range of vocational education and training, including a 6th Form Academy based on the Neath Campus; in the Neath Port Talbot area, the college provides most of the sixth form provision. The Group delivers a wide range of bespoke training for industry and business all over Wales and England and is also the lead provider and contract holder in Skills Academy Wales. The NPTC Group has a higher education programme, delivered in partnership with a range of universities. • A strategic approach driven at a senior level The Senior Management team is fully committed to supporting the work with looked after young people and care leavers across the NPTC Group, with the Assistant Principal for Student Support and Inclusion taking a strategic role. The college’s journey has been driven by committed senior staff including both new principals and the CEO. The introduction of the Buttle UK FE Quality Mark was highly instrumental in the way that vulnerable young people were supported at the college, and the college staff found it very rewarding being a part of that journey. The college has a commitment to continue developing this work after the quality mark is phased out. • Partnership between college and local authority is key The partnership working between the Designated Person, staff at the Brecon and Newtown campuses and the 16+ Powys leaving care team, proved helpful in replicating the support model across the Group. The merger provided an opportunity not only to disseminate the existing good practice in supporting looked after children and care leavers but also to further strengthen the support model for young people in and leaving care across the whole Group. In the four years before the merger, the support model had become well embedded within the Neath Port Talbot campuses, and was then replicated across the Group. The college has mainstreamed the support to ensure its sustainability through developing a work force with the skills and knowledge to provide this cohort with the best possible opportunities to enter FE and succeed on their chosen programme of study. • Recording data enables early intervention New electronic data systems across the Group enable the college to confidentially highlight on their records, those students who are looked after or care leavers, and this raises awareness of all staff who have contact with the care leaver, and also enable attendance and progression to be monitored more effectively across the group, so early intervention can be put in place when needed. • Designated person coordinates cross college support The Designated Person with responsibility for looked after children and care leavers on the Neath Port Talbot Campuses prior to the merger continues this co- ordinating role across the merged College, working closely with the Student Services Manager of the Brecon and Newtown campuses, Student Services Manager at Neath Port Talbot, the Learning Services Manager for the Group, and the Assistant Principal for Learners. The Designated Person has responsibility across the Group for: • maintaining effective partnership working with outside agencies • ensuring opportunities for people in or leaving care to access FE and HE • the gathering and sharing of information on looked after children and care leavers studying across the group • ensuring that dedicated support is provided by designated staff for the application / enrolment process, accessing funding, pastoral support and advocacy • providing points of contact for social workers / carers and other outside agencies • the organisation of events to aid young people’s transition to FE, raise aspiration, encourage access to FE and facilitate student feedback • providing advice, guidance and support to staff working with looked after children and care leavers, monitoring the retention, progression and achievement of this cohort. The college is prepared to make such a big investment in such a relatively small number of students because despite the numbers of care leavers being low - the impact of this work can be huge. The costs of not intervening are even greater - to young people’s lives but also the cost to society. The Welsh Government is currently consulting on a strategy for Wales for care leavers and looked after young people, which is welcomed by the college. • Learner Voice The college support staff working with their key partners and with learners/former care experienced students, run a learner voice event during the summer for the care leavers who are potential students, social workers and other relevant adults. This event is facilitated like a workshop and comprises a range of mainly fun activities, but is not held in college; instead it is run as an away day, not during term time. The students/potential students found the informal nature of the day and the involvement of the former students very helpful and it particularly helped in re-engaging those young people who were not in employment, education or training. • Learners’ stories: A good example of the college’s efforts to support looked after young people can be seen from the following two stories: Student A is now a student at a university, where she is studying criminology and criminal psychology. However, she still lives nearby to the college as the university is within commuting distance, and keeps in occasional touch with college staff. She describes herself as having a ‘number of false starts’. Her college career did not necessarily run smoothly to begin with as she was experiencing some difficulties in her personal life and then, when she first went to university, that too was interrupted and she ended up starting again studying a different subject. The college has been her constant source of support, including when it came to negotiating her change of plan within the university. Student B is currently in the college’s sixth form academy doing A levels and hoping to go to Cardiff University to study software technology. He is enjoying most of his studies and has a clear sense of what he would like to do, focusing on studies that will lead to a job, over the subjects he also enjoys more. The students give a clear picture of the college’s journey in supporting care leavers more effectively. According to the Designated member of staff, it was students like Student A, who started their course as long as 8 years ago who helped to shape the current good practice. Student B is benefiting from this; his progress has been far more seamless as the processes were already in place to support him well when he started at the college. As a second year student at college, he was only just becoming aware of the further levels of support that he would be able to have access to for preparing for and then attending university. These are potentially quite considerable - and it was good for him to hear Student A’s description of what she could access by way of support both through the local authority and through the college. This story was confirmed by one of the local social workers, who could also report back over the whole history of developing the partnerships and the enhanced ways of working together and could report together with college staff, on the progress made and the impact it has had on student retention, achievement and life opportunities. The students’ stories reflected the seamless support in operation and how it works when practice is good. • Informal information, advice and guidance The two students had an interesting discussion about how to get enough work experience and the way in which this can potentially lead to getting a job after graduation. The social worker started to talk to Student A about how she might be able to get jobs after graduation in a secure environment as she is old enough to get a job and clearly has relevant experience. She was really interested in this. She already works part-time in a pizza outlet and the discussion focused on how any job you do is valuable for persuading an employer that you are employable. • Continuity of staff in post – trusted support, quick interventions One area that stands out in the college, despite the changes of the merger, was a sense of relative continuity; many of the relevant staff in the local authority and elsewhere have been involved for some time and know each other well. It is clear that college staff are able to follow up concerns about any care leavers with known social workers. Subsequently, they now avoid the delays in providing adequate support that would have occurred previously and this makes for successful interventions. In the past if a student was having problems, revealed perhaps through non-attendance, it could be weeks before it was picked up and by then the momentum was lost and possibly the student would not be able to continue with the course. Now it can be picked up as soon as the student is not in college without explanation.

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