LAC - Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council

Proposal 2008-09

Arising from the specific difficulties experienced by Looked After Children and the clear consequences of delayed literacy levels the introduction of a literacy intervention project was felt to be valuable.  This project will therefore target the Looked After Children in greatest need to receive an increased level of support above generic services. The input will be tailored to individual needs utilising strategies adopted by the Learning Support Service of the Authority and building on the current provision. For those pupils with the most significant difficulties the Cumbria Reading Project will be utilised which has recently been introduced into the Authority as a collaborative project with the Learning Support Service and Educational & Child Psychology Service. The Learning Support Assistant will be trained to administer these materials and monitored and supervised. Post intervention assessments will look at broader measures than reading e.g. attitudes to reading and learning, engagement in learning activities and involvement of carers in teaching reading.

Summary of Proposal

• The proposals build on a large-scale research project undertaken in 2005. Collaboration with MTCBC is already underway and preliminary discussions are taking place with CCS.
• Proposed – a responsive, flexible, individually targeted intervention programme for LAC, intended to:
  • devise and deliver an individual screening instrument that captures more subtle data than currently;
  • co-ordinate intelligence to shape the most appropriate intervention, as follows:
    • individual programmes on basic and key skills, emotional literacy, behaviour and socialisation, delivered by 3 LSAs.
    • additional and targeted study support;
    • organisational support for study and exam preparation;
    • pastoral mentoring;
    • support for those at risk of exclusion;
    • assistance to care providers;
    • liaison between all partners;
    • administration of monitoring, assessment and reporting.
• Online learning access with software
• Print costs for support materials for carers

Summary of Activities to July 2007

• 3 Learning Support Assistants were appointed to provide individual support to the year 10 and year 11 pupils ‘Looked After’ by Rhondda Cynon Taff
• Regular visits to the young people.
• Clearly defined target setting which involves the young person and the school.
• Liaison with other agencies involved in working with the young person to plan for consistency of approach and to enable joint target setting.
• Baseline assessments enabled individual support packages
• Individual Learning Packages have been provided for each pupil in liaison with staff in school, carers and the pupil themselves
• The Getting Connected course delivered to  multi-disciplinary teams, provided guidance and planned programmes for developing emotional literacy
• Training for LSAs and designated LAC teacher in Key Stage 4
• A bank of resources have been developed to support learning
• Business Support has been appointed to provide admin support

Impact:

• Confidence in the pupil’s own ability to learn and general attitude to learning has shown significant improvement
• Pupil’s moved from entry level to GCSE standard as a result of the support given
• Schools have given positive feedback through discussion and information gathered from an evaluation of the carers has indicated that the support has been valuable and helped the young people achieve their educational targets
• Foster carers have felt supported in contributing to education.