School-Home Support
Emily Rogers
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Practitioners work with families to address the root causes of poor school attendance and behaviour.
- They play a pivotal role in Troubled Families programmes
- Nearly three quarters of children improved school attendance last year and 82 per cent improved behaviour
ACTION
Most social workers are reporting rising thresholds due to budget cuts, both for "child in need" intervention and "early help", putting the onus increasingly on schools to identify struggling families and facilitate support. For more than 30 years, School-Home Support's (SHS) trained school-based practitioners have been helping hard-to-reach families address the root causes of their children's poor attendance and behaviour, and helping them to reach their full potential.
SHS has more than 60 practitioners, mainly employed by schools. But it's also contracted by two London authorities to work within Troubled Families programmes. Newham allocates borough-wide cases to a six-strong team of SHS practitioners. Meanwhile, in Barking and Dagenham, three practitioners work with 30 families they've identified from day-to-day work in schools. Each becomes the family's "lead professional", agreeing a plan with them to tackle their issues, enlisting help from other professionals through "team around the family" meetings. "[SHS practitioners] have a very early relationship with families who know their face in school, enabling them to gather intelligence before things escalate," explains Shaun Childs, the council's head of intervention and community solutions.
SHS chief executive Jaine Stannard says practitioners' first step in engaging parents is "finding out what's really important to them at that time, which is all they're able to focus on, and tackling that".
She explains: "The school's priority may be getting the child into school regularly or improving behaviour. But if you're facing eviction and suffering from domestic violence, that's not your priority at that point."
Stannard says practitioners are much less constrained than social workers and teachers by high caseloads and timetables, enabling them to stay true to the charity's motto of "Children in school, ready to learn, whatever it takes". She cites the example of an eight-year-old not attending school, whose mother was not replying to letters and phone calls. The practitioner loaded her car with paperwork and parked outside the mother's house, leaving a note saying she'd remain until she felt ready to talk. After several days, she opened the door.
The mother had mental health issues, mounting debts and faced eviction. "That pushed her over the edge and she went into denial about everything," recalls Stannard. "With all that going on, her child not attending school wasn't an issue for her." The practitioner accompanied her to the doctor for a letter supporting an eviction delay, then to court, where this was granted. She arranged counselling and phoned creditors to address the debts, helping the mother replicate her handling of the situation. Having built trust, she broached the issue of school attendance, supporting her through daily routines and helping her build friendships at school, through coffee mornings. Her son's attendance steadily improved. "What we look for in staff is tenacity," says Stannard. "That situation would've otherwise just escalated. Our practitioners' backgrounds include social work, teaching and mental health. They all wanted to do more in these professions, but the limitations of their roles meant they couldn't."
SHS practitioners receive regular training, advice and casework supervision from a team of five managers, each specialising in safeguarding, attendance, parental engagement, economic wellbeing or educational achievement. Stannard says lines are blurring between the "high intensity" caseloads of practitioners working within Troubled Families and those of their colleagues, who are addressing increasingly-high levels of need. The percentage of safeguarding-related interventions has tripled over six years.
Schools wanting help can sign up free of charge to the charity's membership service to access its online resources and forum. They can also buy training and supervision visits by SHS specialists.
IMPACT
In the last academic year, 10,000 children and family members have been supported. Of children with attendance issues, 73 per cent improved attendance; 82 per cent of those with behavioural issues improved behaviour; and the same percentage improved engagement in learning.
Of 1,250 Troubled Families cases, parents rated themselves an average of four out of 10 for wellbeing before SHS, doubling to eight afterwards. For children's education and learning, the average score increased from five to 8.5, and scores for children's safety, boundaries and behaviour, social networks and progress into work increased from six to nine.
Of 54 families supported by SHS practitioners in Barking and Dagenham over the last two years, none have re-entered the system.
This article is part of CYP Now's special report on early help. Click here for more