Working with Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs), Attendance Lead’s, the Youth Support Service (YSS) and Independent Review Officer (IROs)
Designated teachers in schools are not expected to be experts in everything but they must understand what wider supports are available in their schools and lead on getting vulnerable children the timeliest support to meet their needs. Specific issues that Designated Teachers might have to liaise with others about are:
Escalating SEND (including mental health difficulties)
A child has SEND if they have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age’ (SEND Code of Practice, 2015). Designated Teachers should work closely with the SENCO to identify the needs of children in care and put in place appropriate provision to support them that ensures a graduated approach is taken to meeting their needs and helping them make progress. SENCOs can attend PEP meetings and should ensure that the SEND support plan for children in care is up to date and reviewed regularly using assess-plan-do-review.
This Graduated Approach (PDF) document explains more.
If a child in care has an EHCP, the Designated Teacher and SENCO can combine the PEP with the child’s annual review.
SENCOs working in conjunction with DTs where a child’s needs are escalating may find it useful to train up on / use CBC SEND’s resources for SEMH including Therapeutic Thinking (padlet.com).
Attendance support
Attendance at school is important for children’s wellbeing, safety and long-term development. Barriers to regular school attendance can be wide-ranging and complex for children in care and children previously in care. Trauma and ACEs can result in latent vulnerabilities which may make these young people more likely to develop poor mental or physical health, academic challenges (gaps in learning from disrupted education), social barriers (from relational trauma/attachment difficulties) as well as barriers arising from a pupil’s home environment and personal circumstances (such as placement breakdowns and moves). All these things can have a detrimental effect on attendance.
Working together to improve school attendance (applies from 19 August 2024) (publishing.service.gov.uk) (PDF) sets out how schools should work with families and professionals to resolve attendance difficulties and establishes the role of school attendance leads as partners to help support.
Central Bedfordshire is also developing advice on how to tackle Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA). In the meantime, other local authorities and organisations have produced helpful guides that schools can use to identify and tackle emotionally based school attendance difficulties including:
- Milton Keynes - Emotionally Based School Avoidance Guidance for Schools_Part 1 Information (milton-keynes.gov.uk) (PDF)
- Emotionally Based School Avoidance Guidance for Schools_Part 2 Practical Support (milton-keynes.gov.uk) (PDF)
- Anna Freud - School attendance and mental wellbeing 2024 - Frontify (annafreud.org)
Youth Support Service
Children in Care may need personalised guidance around options and careers. Most schools can access this within their school setting so Designated Teachers should liaise with their careers advice service and ensure young people in care are fully supported to help broaden their horizons, raise their aspirations and increase their participation in education, employment, and training. If services are not available in school to support children in care, Virtual School has a youth careers advisor (working for the Youth Support Service and the Virtual School) who can work with 13-19 year olds, either currently in care or care leavers, to provide them with face to face, impartial careers guidance.
Independent Review Officer
The role of the IRO is to monitor how the local authority treats children in care and oversee their care plan. A child’s care plan must be reviewed regularly; the first care plan review must take place within 20 working days of a child coming into care, the second no more than 3 months after the first review, and the third and subsequent reviews at no more than 6-month intervals. Reviews of children’s care plans are chaired by the IRO who need to know about the child’s educational/development progress. Designated Teachers need to provide them with up-to-date, accurate and reflective information about the child’s educational and developmental progress. This is done through the child’s PEP which must be available to the IRO ahead of the review meetings.