LAC - Ceredigion County Council

Ceredigion LA in line with the LAC RAISE strategy has been running a series of initiatives to improve the educational achievements of Young People in the care system. The initiatives have targeted specific cohorts of Looked After Children namely those in Year 9, 10 and 11. The aim of the strategy is to offer targeted and structured support to every Looked After Child in Year 9,10 and 11 to fulfil their full potential and gain recognised accreditation at the end of Year 11. Year 6 pupils will also be identified during the transition period. Initiatives adopted encourage pupil engagement and achievement, meet the needs of pupils with Emotional and Behavioural difficulties and support individuals who choose to follow an alternative education path.

Background and context

Ceredigion is a rural authority with a population of around 75,000 .It’s main economy depends on tourism and agriculture.  We have 68 primary schools and 7 mainstream Secondary schools. In addition Teaching and Learning Centres, specialised off site centres, have been developed to offer EOTAS provision for pupils at Key Stage 4. Ceredigion has an approximate school population of 10,000 pupils. The majority of pupils in Ceredigion attend a mainstream school. There are no PRU facilities at Key Stage 3 and a very small number of pupils are educated out of county due to specific difficulties. To date Ceredigion has approximately 75 pupils in Local Authority Care at any one time. Of these, approximately 17 are in Year 9,10 and 11.

Focus in terms of RAISE activity/ Key innovations

The main focus of the LAC RAISE strategy is to raise educational achievement at Key Stage 4. As the cohort is relatively small Ceredigion has been able to meet the needs of individuals, mainly be allocating mentors and tutors, commissioning Youth Cambria to support pupils with Emotional and Behavioural difficulties, ensuring that all pupils have access to personal computers and appropriate software as well as supporting and increasing alternative educational packages when and if needed. Mentors were offered to all pupils currently in Year 9,10 and 11. When the mentors engaged well and formed a positive relationship with the young person the outcomes have been very positive. It has ensured consistency for the young person especially when placements have broken down. To support the mentoring role, tutors were allocated to teach the young people when and if needed. The tutors have concentrated mainly on core subjects. This strategy has worked well in supporting young people especially those who experience school moves during the academic year. The development of the Teaching and Learning Centres in the three areas in Ceredigion has ensured a more inclusive and local alternative curriculum for those young people who do not engage/ manage in mainstream education. The Accipio course has enabled hard to reach students to access GSCE courses via the computer. The RAISE LAC strategy has enabled Ceredigion to fund some additional subjects for some young people who follow the ACCIPIO when and if needed. This initiative allowed some young people to continue to follow courses of interest in addition to core subjects. The commissioning of Ieuenctid Cambria Youth has been very successful. Youth Cambria has successfully engaged hard to reach young people with individualised programmes. The 1:1 programmes have worked on self esteem and acceptable behaviours. Programmes are agreed as part of Pastoral Support programmes and aims and outcomes are discussed at the beginning of the sessions. The LAC RAISE strategy has impacted positively on pupils learning and wellbeing by offering

• Additional support for study- mentors/ tutors;
• Development of home/ school links;
• Develop additional ICT facilities;
• Increase access and resources at drop in facilities to support education;
• Support with behaviour management;
• The opportunity for young people to attend additional school visits that enhance learning;
• To look at different opportunities for accreditation;

The LAC RAISE strategy as well as other initiatives have positively impacted on individual schools capacity to meet the needs of disadvantaged pupils. Schools have taken advantage of whole school training opportunities including presentations by the Geese Theatre. Many aspects of the project will be sustainable. The project outcomes including the educational attainment will be shared with key members of the management team in both the Education and Social Services department. Many aspects of the project compliment the core aims of the Children and Young People’s plan and therefore are considered as whole county priorities. The RAISE LAC strategy is a multi agency venture with colleagues from Social Services and the Education department working together to support young pupils to fulfil their full potential. At the beginning of the academic year a multi agency meeting is held with key members of staff from both departments who agree on priorities and evaluate current progress.   The project is now in its fourth year. Mentoring has proven successful and when engagement has been good the mentors have acted both as support and advocates for the young people. Commissioning an external company to work on one to one projects has been successful. Pupils identified have engaged well with the leaders and this has had a positive influence on their engagement with education. Of those identified for such support, all are still in mainstream education and accessing either a full national curriculum or an alternative more appropriate local curriculum. As the numbers of Looked After Children are relatively small it has enabled Ceredigion to adopt an individual approach to meeting the specific needs of Young People.