LAC - Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council

One of our key priorities is to ensure that all Merthyr Tydfil LAC finish KS4 with an accredited qualification.  It is hugely pleasing to note that within the 2008-2009 Merthyr Tydfil YR 11 LAC cohort, 100% left Key Stage 4 with a recognised accredited qualification, we are dedicated to achieving similar outcomes this year.  Through a thorough screening process of our cohort of Merthyr Tydfil Looked after Key Stage 4 pupils, we will target individual identified educational/social/emotional needs that impact on learning and achievement.  Consideration will be taken as to whether each Merthyr Tydfil LAC placed in and out of county could benefit from the following activities as part of the RAISE funding.  These would include provision of GCSE resources (including IT resources), private tuition, funding for extra curricular activities, full psychology assessments to provide guidance to carers, social workers and schools as well as support to a young person, provision of LSA to support mainstream school placements and/or anger management in addition to that provided by central services.  This screening process, comprising measures of behaviour, socialisation, literacy and numeracy will be re-evaluated on an annual basis.  The views of the young person, social worker, foster carer and school will be instrumental in ensuring that these individualised packages of support are appropriate.   

In our attempts to ensure that post-statutory school LAC and care leavers remain engaged in further education, training or employment, we have commissioned a company to work with potential NEETS in Key Stage 3 and 4 on a ‘Film Project’.  This project will run for 12 weeks and will look at some of the barriers for LAC in engaging in further education, training and employment.  Young people will have the opportunity to gain a number of key skill qualifications from this project and will also develop skills necessary for a successful transition to further education, training or employment, including job seeking, CV writing and interview techniques.  With the agreement of the participants, this film will be shown to service directors and colleagues within the corporate parenting group with the intention of strategic service development.

We currently commission a bank of qualified teachers and youth workers with a host of skills, including training in counselling and anger management delivery to work on a 1:1 basis with those Key Stage 4 Merthyr Tydfil looked after young people who wish to access the service.  This service has also been used to offer intensive support to those Key Stage 4 LAC who have experienced a social care placement breakdown and are awaiting entry to a new school, and to individual pupils who are in danger of exclusion or who are struggling in their educational setting.  We recognise the importance of early intervention in reaping positive outcomes for looked after children and are currently running a number of Local Authority projects alongside the RAISE grant. These include a ‘chance to shine scheme’, a ‘book of my own’ project, the offer of additional tuition for all key stage 3 pupils and a pilot scheme looking at the impact of training foster carers in basic literacy schemes.  

Based on the success of previous events, we continue to offer multi agency training to designated teaching staff, social workers and foster carers through the RAISE grant.