Central Lancs

Education Partnership Officers 

Claire Fox/Alison Walsh  

Period  

Summer 1 May 2024 

Priority  

Explore the emotional health and wellbeing offers available to support schools.  

From March 2024 this priority will also include the work around School Avoidance: particularly looking at what support is available for schools when working with those children and families experiencing anxiety when attending school.

Intended Outcomes  

  • Schools have a better understanding of and access to the available mental health and emotional wellbeing support across Chorley and South Ribble 
  • The Central Lancs TASS work will link in with the county wide work looking at this. 
  • Local needs can be addressed through the TASS partnership and linked to the Trauma Informed work 

Activity last period 

  • First Senior Mental Health Leads network meeting facilitated by Compass Bloom for schools.
  • Met with CFW to explore their response to school avoidance including the use of the CME/ PME process, and options to update the Transitions programme to reflect some of the emerging factors as identified by schools.
  • Met with Childrens Social Care around their processes for persistent absenteeism.
  • Discussion with Lancashire Adult Learning around a parenting offer.
  • Mental health partners offer considered in relation to school avoidance.
  • First meeting held with multi-agency partners.
  • Parameters of meeting established through Terms of Reference and Information Sharing Agreement developed and shared. Criteria for the pilot also set.
  • 3 cases discussed with actions and suggestions for partners and schools to try.

 Planned activity next period  

  • Follow up meeting set to review cases and discuss further.
  • Meeting to consider wider solutions, parenting offer, transitions work etc and to work in partnership to implement these.
  • The work with South Ribble Borough Council and Lancashire Mindhas been put on hold until the Autumn term.
  • Link the district in with the county wide mental health work around support for schools in particular a graduated response to mental health support in the district- as requested at last Locality Group.
  • Link the Primary MH leads to the PMHW sessions.
  • Follow up with CAMHs regarding the directory of services being developed.
  • Compass Bloom MH Steering Group for the district to be attended by EPOs.

Impact so far 

  • 4 High Schools have agreed to be part of the School Avoidance pilot, 3 individual cases have been discussed in the pilot.
  • 12 high schools attended and contributed to the initial discussion around school avoidance.
  • The School Attendance network across Chorley and South Ribble have agreed to host the discussions around school avoidance.
  • Commitment from PMHW to offer termly network meetings for schools to come together for ongoing CPD and support around mental health.
  • Commitment from Compass Bloom to coordinate and facilitate the Senior Mental Health Lead network.
  • 80 schools/ partners attended the mental health development session hosted by CFW with presentations for partners. 
  • Information about some provision already shared with schools- eg Lancashire Mind and YOGI. 

Exit Strategy  

 Schools will feel supported in the mental health offer, they will know what's available to them across the district and who to refer to, when. Targeted support for those who are the mental health lead in schools will be available through the mental health partners.  

Priority

Increase the number of young people engaging in education, employment and training in Chorley.

Intended Outcomes

To explore the number of young people across Chorley who are NEET (Not in Education Employment or Training) and develop a pathway of support, advice and guidance to improve their outcomes.

Activity last period

Initial meeting held with Chorley council, Inspire Youth Zone, LCC Post 16 lead to explore and exchange data.

Chorley Council have commissioned Inspire Youth Zone to deliver a programme in Chorley targeting employability & NEET. The data which LCC can share will enable Chorley to target specific wards, especially the 'unknown' young people who may access Inspire.

Inspire already deliver in most secondary schools in Chorley including Shaftesbury. This includes work around life skills, aspirations and mentoring.

Planned activity next period

To explore the development of the DIVERT panel and how this can also be a mechanism for identifying young people at risk of NEET or are already.

 To invite Inspire to the other TASS priority re: School Avoidance as this aligns with their existing work within secondaries and Inspire feel they may be engaging some of the pupils who are not in school.

 Working group to meet again in July following some analysis of data in Chorley.

To liaise with post 16 providers to explore transitions from secondaries and young people who have dropped out of college.

To engage Targeted Youth Service with this work.

 To explore the links with effective transition from primary to secondary/secondary to post 16 provision.

Impact so far

Chorley Council felt there was a need to support increasing employability and young people into education, employment, and training. They are now connected with the Post 16 lead and her team; particularly around accessing some specific data which will help the council and Inspire as their delivery partner to target the young people, enhancing reach.

Exit Strategy

The connections made between LCC and Chorley Council along with other partners who support and advise young people will strengthen the approach to NEET young people across the district. It is hoped that this will support Chorley Council with their piece of work and use of funding to enable the collaborative working to continue.

Priority 

To explore the development of Trauma Informed Practice with schools and partners in Chorley & South Ribble  

Intended Outcomes 

To promote Trauma Informed training across the locality to raise awareness and embed practice.  

Activity last period 

Violence Reduction Network have delivered Trauma Informed awareness sessions to 29 members of staff and partners across Chorley and South Ribble.  

 VRN Education lead continues to offer enhanced support to individual schools around embedding Trauma Informed practice within policy and procedures along with a whole school approach. This includes post 16 provision.  

Planned activity next period

Schools who accessed the training requested more information around the VR Headset training as a next step to the TI awareness. Details have been circulated. 

The key messages and training offer from various partners will continue to be driven via Locality Group partners.  

Impact so far 

Schools and partners have received local Trauma Informed training from VRN. Updates from schools will be obtained to understand how the training has impacted on schools policies, approaches and their children and young people.

Exit Strategy 

The Trauma informed school's priority will cease at the end of term in relation to a 'TASS priority', however CFW, VRN and Virtual School continue to offer training which will continue to be shared with partners and education settings.