Behind the Inspection Rating: Special school masters risk

St Piers School, Young Epilepsy centre, Surrey – residential care
inspection – February 2014

Any setting that receives an "outstanding" Ofsted judgment is expected to have high-quality facilities, and St Piers School, the special school run by Young Epilepsy, is certainly no exception. Across the school's vast site in Surrey sits a hydrotherapy pool, gym, farm and a pond for kayaking.

But when you look after young people with epilepsy and often other health needs such as autism, facilities alone cannot get you an outstanding rating - something the school's residential houses have just achieved.

"We always aimed for outstanding," says house manager Jay Shekleton. But it was the absence of any recommendations on how they could make things even better that pleased him most. "They didn't even have things they thought we had to improve on," he adds.

As well as facilities, paying attention to what young people say is an important part of St Piers' success. The houses use formal and informal consultation to pick up on what the young people want.

These suggestions might be a fleeting comment made over dinner or crop up during formal one-to-ones or the young people's group meetings held every week.

"The staff team meet every week and talk about the young people in general and their views, and look at what are the correct ways of addressing any issues or what development opportunities there are," he says.

"For example they want to go to Longleat Safari, so we've been looking at how to make that happen. That's a two and a half hour journey so we do it in a way that means they can see how things are planned and how if you want to do these things it takes time."

The staff also make a point of being open to riskier ideas.

"Eighteen months ago, I had a group that wanted to go paintballing," Shekleton says. "A lot of people would say it's highly dangerous and they could get injured, but it's the same risk that we would have when going ice skating or skiing. There are dangers for all of us, so why shouldn't they be able to take those risks? We do as much as we can to reduce those risks, but it's good to give them the confidence to do these things."

Training is what makes staff confident about handling riskier activities, says Shekleton.

"We make sure we have quite a diverse staff team and they go through a really rigorous training regime, which is constantly updated and that gives them the skills and the confidence to actually take risk and come up with those ideas because it's the support workers and so on that are making those suggestions and are often the ones delivering them."

Ofsted was also pleased by how staff could get involved in other parts of the organisation and get training on skills, such as physiotherapy and behaviour management, that aren't part of their day-to-day work.

Giving staff skills in all kinds of areas is beneficial, says Shekleton.

"We do it because we never really know what is waiting for us round the corner," he says. "Disability can be quite unpredictable - we can get a new young person with a new condition or a young person's condition can change suddenly. So it is right that we have a highly trained transferable skills base within our staff teams."

Fact File

Name: Young Epilepsy

Location: Lingfield, Surrey

Description: At its site in Lingfield, Surrey, Young Epilepsy runs St Piers, a residential special school for children and young people aged up to 19. Although epilepsy is the primary reason children attend the school, many also have additional, complex needs such as autism or a learning disability. This Ofsted inspection examines the work of the school's residential houses, in which pupils stay during term-time.

Number of children: There were 19 residential pupils at the time of the Ofsted inspection.

Ofsted inspection reference: SC013943

Helpful Hints

• Let them express themselves. Young Epilepsy allows the children living in its residential houses to personalise their bedrooms. "If they are going to be here 39 weeks a year, they have to have somewhere that they feel very safe and comfortable in," says house manager Jay Shekleton. "Group living can be overwhelming sometimes."
• Sing your praises. If you want to get that outstanding Ofsted rating you can't be shy about what makes your setting fantastic. "You only really achieve that by showing them that you go beyond what is required from the regulatory standards," says Shekleton. "Let Ofsted know what you have done well - often they won't ask for what you've done to exceed the standards, they are just there to make sure you're maintaining the standards and are not actively looking to give people outstandings, so you need to give them the evidence."
• Inspect yourself. As well as praising the monitoring systems in place at St Piers, Ofsted also liked the way the governors make unannounced visits to check the quality of care and education. The recommendations that follow these visits are acted on, notes the Ofsted report.