Hope Service response to SEND'14 questions
Young people access the Day Programme through referral from either Social Care or Community Mental Health Teams. Most young people are also on roll at school or college and the Hope Service will liaise with a Special Educational Need Coordinator (SENCO) to discuss and collect information for them, which includes progress and attainment data, interventions and support plans and one-page profiles.
We have rigorous monitoring in place that tracks progress and engagement in academic subjects. We also collect data via the Pupil Attitudes to School and Self tool (PASS) and a Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) profile. Our staff are vigilant at supporting and raising any concerns. We use data, for example, Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) and Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS), to identify additional needs and celebrate achievement. The multi-agency staff team (which include Social Workers, Community Psychiatric Nurses (CPN), Clinical Psychologists, Consultant Psychiatrist, Activity Workers, Art/Drama therapists and Teachers) address and monitor concerns through twice daily briefing sessions and regular multi-disciplinary case reviews. Parents and Carers are encouraged to speak to their young person's Hope Co-ordinator, Key Worker or Link Teacher about any concerns they have.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Green - embedded.
The Hope Service is set up to provide short term interventions usually between six and twelve months, with a view to re-integrating young people back into their mainstream or alternative provision or moving them on to the next stage of provision. Young people attend the Hope Service on a part time basis, usually in conjunction with attendance at their school, college or alternative provision. All multi-agency staff at Hope work closely with these provisions and professionals to support young people's needs.
Every young person attending the Hope Service has a personalised timetable based around individual need and the most appropriate interventions are identified for each young person. These can include a range of therapies, activities and education.
Education at the Hope Service comprises of a core offer of English, Maths and , together with an additional offer of Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE). Employability and supported study, where appropriate, in conjunction with the young person's school or college. Having identified needs, we seek to match provision to need. We use an allocated key worker system, alongside a dedicated link teacher to support young people in their development. We monitor the impact of interventions and track progress through regular multi-disciplinary meetings, together with the regular review of each young person in a multi-disciplinary team within the service and further meetings with the school or college setting.
Where we identify something isn't working, we are quick to respond and find alternatives through dialogue with the learner and their family. All our additional support programmes are overseen by the Teacher in Charge of Education and all our teachers are experienced in working to support a range of special educational needs and liaise closely with the wider agency team at the Hope Service to implement each young person's Care Plan and develop appropriate targets.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Green - embedded.
Differentiation is embedded in our curriculum and practice. We have a personalised curriculum with regular reviews. We set targets for each subject area and track attainment and engagement each lesson and help the young people to reflect on the next steps to take to progress in their learning. The Hope Service offers a core of English and Maths in addition to PSHE, ASDAN and General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) support sessions, alongside opportunities to gain a number of qualifications in Functional Skills and Arts award. Teaching staff liaise closely with the substantial educational placement to ensure relevant and up to date information (levels / grades/ topics to be covered) is received in a timely manner as the young person starts in the day programme. Within the day programme young people access a range of therapies and activities alongside their education. During the academic year we receive visits from a range of groups and professionals, for example Police Drugs dog visits, Catch 22, Smoking Cessation and National Citizenship Service (NCS) and User Voice Participation (UVP), who provide other opportunities for our young people to widen their skills and knowledge. Work experience is offered in collaboration with mainstream schools based on need and suitability. Young people are encouraged to have a voice in the curriculum offered and there are regular opportunities to reflect, assess and amend the curriculum to be responsive to young peoples' needs at any given time.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Green - embedded.
All young people who access education in the day programme are baselined within the first few weeks and academic targets based upon the baseline and the number of sessions they receive in each subject each week. A termly report is sent home to parents and carers. This Red, Amber, Green (RAG) rates their academic progress, their engagement with learning and their attendance. Teachers will identify in the report what each young person has done well and the areas they need to focus upon to develop their learning further.
All young people within the service have a Care Plan outlining needs, interventions, targets and progress and additionally we use tools such as HoNOSCA and CGAS to monitor progress in emotional health and wellbeing. We share progress feedback with all our learners and their parents and carers through review meetings and termly reports. In addition, we have a number of opportunities (Hope reviews, Children Looked After (CLA), Personal Education Plan (PEP) and Care Plan Approach (CPA) meetings, telephone contact, outreach work and Celebration Evenings, where parents and carers can meet with staff to discuss learner progress. At such meetings, and through other means, we share what can be done by families at home to support the learning at school. Parents and carers are able to meet with teaching staff to discuss their educational progress by appointment at any time of the year and a yearly Evening of Celebration is held to recognise young people's achievements.
Should more regular contact be required, our staff will make suitable arrangements to ensure this is put in place.
We believe in supporting the development of parenting skills and as such deliver workshops on site in collaboration with the multi-agency staff team employed by the service. The Hope Service run a thriving Parent and Carers group, which covers a number of different topics and themes, alongside running a Families Learning About Self Harm (FLASH) group to empower parents and carers to support their young people in terms of both learning and wellbeing.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Green - embedded.
All our staff are regularly trained to provide a high standard of pastoral support. We utilise our multi-agency staff team (CPNs, Consultant Psychiatrists, Clinical Child Psychologist, Family Therapist, Social Workers and Art/Drama therapists), to support medical needs. Our Behaviour Policy; which includes guidance on expectations, rewards and interventions is fully understood and in place by all staff. We regularly monitor attendance and take the necessary actions to prevent prolonged unauthorised absence, liaising with other professionals including Inclusion officers, Educational Psychologist (EP) and the young person's school setting. Learner voice is central to our ethos and this is encouraged in a variety of ways and regularly (through learner questionnaires, lesson feedback, young person's meetings and interview involvement.)
Our Hope Values are explicit and shared with all young people and they underpin all that we do in the day programme. The Hope Service offers a therapeutic environment which embeds restorative and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) approaches. Staff are highly skilled in supporting young people with a range of social, emotional and mental health difficulties and provide a number of direct and indirect interventions to empower young people to develop skills and coping strategies.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Green - embedded.
Our staff receive regular training and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) on a number of relevant and specialist issues such as; attachment, self harm and Crisis Intervention Institute (CPI) Safety Intervention training. All of our teachers hold qualified teacher status and the Teacher in Charge holds the Post Graduate Diploma (PG Dip) in Behaviour, Emotional and Social Difficulties (BESD). We are a multi-agency provision with professionals in health and social care including Family Therapy, Drama and Art Therapists, social workers, Community Psychiatric Nurses (CPN), Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry, in addition to Activity Workers and Teachers.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Green - embedded.
The Teacher in Charge of Education oversees and co-ordinates all matters of Special Educational Needs (SEN) with the support of the Lead Teacher on each site. Each of the Lead Teachers are currently working towards the National Professioanl Qualification in Special Edicational Needs (NPQSEN). Additionally all young people are allocated a 'Link Teacher' to work specifically with them in liaison with the multi-agency team in the service to provide a multi-faceted approach to SEN to ensure we meet the needs of the young people. All staff are appropriately qualified in their field of expertise. We regularly invest time and money in training our staff in the development of our wave provision, enhancing skills and knowledge to enable the delivery of high quality, personalised interventions on a need's basis. All staff are actively engaged in the ethos of the therapeutic nature of the provision and receive both performance management and individual and group clinical and therapeutic supervision in order to maximise the support offered to young people. Staff are encouraged and supported to access regular training and to ensure they are up to date with skills and knowledge. Staff from the Hope Service are regularly involved with delivering specialist training to the wider network including running Twilight sessions for schools, cross agency training and presenting at national conferences. A high proportion of the staff have been trained in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT).
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Green - embedded.
The service promotes involvement of all our learners in all aspects of the curriculum including activities outside the classroom. Off-site visits are designed to enhance wider curricular and recreational opportunities for our young people and provide a wider range of experiences than could be provided on-site, as well as promoting the development of confidence, self-esteem and independence as learners. These opportunities include regular outreach and a holiday programme provision, in addition to organised educational activities and Outdoor Education (Surrey Outdoor Learning and Development). Where there are concerns of safety and access, further thought and consideration (together with a multi-agency risk assessment) is put in place to ensure needs are met; where applicable, parents and carers are consulted and involved in planning. Where necessary, additional equipment or staffing is utilised to ensure all young people have the same access of opportunity to engage in the wider curriculum.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Green - embedded.
We value and respect diversity in our setting and do our very best to meet the needs of all out learners. Young people attend the service on a short-term basis (6-12 months) and we endeavour to respond to the needs of any young person referred and accepted to the service. Our Epsom site is fully wheelchair accessible and Guildford is accessible using portable ramps. Both sites have disabled toilet facilities and quiet, accessible spaces for young people to utilise.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Amber – established (Guildford site does not have a fully accessible disabled toilet).
We have a robust Induction programme in place for welcoming new learners to our setting, including outreach visits, the allocation of a keyworker system and a Hope Co-ordinator. Young people will visit, where possible, on a number of occasions before entry to the day programme. Information from schools is gathered for each young person, in addition to new learners having introductory sessions with their key worker and Coordinator on entry to the day programme. These sessions facilitate relationships building in addition to gaining further information about the young person, including what they want to work on whilst attending the day programme. The service records what aspects of our environment help young people learn and this information is passed on in transition, through our educational discharge report and well as a more detailed discharge report compiled by the Hope Co-ordinator (Social worker or CPN).
We have very good relationships with mainstream provisions as well as other settings young people move onto. The nature of the short term provision means that strong links are fostered between young people's 'home' educational provision and the service, via Link Teachers and Coordinators, often with practical support being offered by both Key Workers and Activity Workers, both in placement schools and on an outreach basis. Transition and re-integration is fully supported, with staff from both provisions working closely together along with any other professionals involved. Each young person's school and parent and carer is provided with an Education Discharge Report, which outlines achievements, areas for development, strategies in addition to curriculum covered and levels. The Hope Service also offer Twilight sessions to schools and colleges free of charge, to offer guidance and support in working with the young people transitioning from Hope. These are on a range of topics, including: Supporting staff to manage self harm in schools and Trauma informed approaches.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Green - embedded.
The General Manager, Management Committee and Commissioning Directors for both Surrey County Council (SCC) and Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust (SABP) oversee all matters of finance. The service is jointly funded through SCC and the Integrated Care Board (ICB) delivered in partnership with SABP. Taxis for young people attending are funded (where applicable) by Surrey County Council (SCC). The Hope Service does not receive Pupil Premium or Educatonal Health and Care Plan (EHCP) funding as this is retained by the young person's 'home' school. A significant number of resources are dedicated to providing the personalised learning through a high ratio of specialist, multi-agency staff. Funding is also allocated to provide an extensive outreach and holiday programme, with specialist activity, nursing and social care staff and to offer a range of alternative curriculum opportunities. Young people also are encouraged to have a voice in terms of resourcing the provision and the management team have responded to requests where viable for example bean bags, sensory equipment and learning resources.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Amber – established (Multi-agency funding arrangements make this challenging. The service is jointly funded between SCC and ICB in partnership with SABP and no Pupil Premium is received).
On referral, a multi-agency staff team, together with the wider network of professionals identify each young person's needs and develop a Care Plan outlining these needs alongside appropriate planned interventions. The provision is then planned to achieve the outcomes set for each individual and these are reviewed by the multi-disciplinary staff team on a regular basis. In education sessions, at the end of each session, the teacher and young person review the progress they have made against the lesson objectives.
The Teacher in Charge of Education oversees all additional support and regularly shares updates with the Management Committee. Young person's timetables are reviewed and amended, if necessary on a termly basis to ensure that they continue to meet need and offer the necessary support and interventions. However, changes can and are made in a more flexible and timely manner if it is clear that a young person requires more immediate support. Each young person is reviewed on a daily basis when in the day programme in order to ensure needs can be met appropriately depending on presentation.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Green - embedded.
We whole-heartedly believe in partnering parents and carers in a two-way dialogue to support a child/young person's learning, needs and aspirations. Care Co-ordinators are the main contact for parents and carers and provide progress updates on a regular basis. Parents are invited to contribute though several means, (including regular questionnaires). We host regular parent and carer groups, in order to both support and listen to any concerns. Parents and carers are invited to a variety of meetings regarding progress and development of young people, including; Reviews, Integration Meetings, PEP's and CPA's. Our Management Committee includes Parent Governors/representatives. Their are opportunities for Parents and Carers to join our management committee should this be of interest.
School self-evaluation Red, Green and Amber (RAG) rating
Green - embedded.
In the first instance, parents and carers are encouraged to talk to their young person's Co-ordinator. Further information and support can be obtained from the Link Teacher, Teacher in Charge of Education or Team Manager.
Please contact the Hope Service.