The P&FS professionals working with a school will meet,at least, annually to draw up an agreement with the school to identify the work to be carried out by P&FS over the next academic year/term and the support required from school staff in order to achieve this.
The plan will be reviewed on a termly basis. The attendance at the termly review may be with fewer staff than the annual meeting.
School planning meetings should be chaired by the Head Teacher/SENCO.
The agreed plan should be recorded and a copy held in the school and the P&FS school file (see proposed format).
The plan should take account of the school’s development/improvement plan and SCE/P&FS priorities.
The meeting should be divided into two parts:
-Long term strategic work in the school/community
-Priority work with pupils (it is acknowledged that pupils may be identified as causing concern at any time in the academic year)
Part of the meeting could include the professionals from other agencies who also support the school e.g. SSAFA Social Worker/BFSWS Social Worker, Youth Worker, Speech & Language Therapist and Child & Adolescent Mental Health Worker. The school will be responsible for inviting these other professionals as appropriate.
Whenever possible, the SCE Link Inspector Adviser should be invited to the planning meeting.
The agenda for the meeting should include:
Training
- Safeguarding
- CAF
- Mobility
- Deployment
- Behaviour
- SEN/disability
- Inclusion issues
- Loss, change, bereavement
- Critical Incident Planning
- LSA training – for new and existing staff
Development work
- Linked to strategic priorities
Priority work with pupils
- Statemented pupils - plan dates for Annual Reviews
- Pupils at risk of exclusion
- School Action+ pupils
Other Vulnerable Groups, for example:
- Looked after children
- Young carers
- Children who are adopted
- Pupils identified as children in need (section 47)
- Pupils assessed as being at risk (section 17)
- Pupils with poor attendance
- Pupils in transition
Dates agreed for identified pieces of work (see attached grid).
Not all pupils need to be discussed at these planning meetings. It is more effective if detailed ‘pupil specific’discussions are arranged at a separate time with the relevant P&FS staff/Teachers/Tutors and as appropriate to also include parents.
The school support plan should be reviewed termly
Planning should always allow for some flexibility. P&FS does not operate a ‘time allocation’ model. It is essential that planning allows for open discussion balancing the needs of a school with the staff resources available. The P&FS staff resource is an agency wide provision, therefore the ability to meet the needs of any individual school or early years setting will have to be moderated between locations.
It is likely that there will be unexpected work, for example, due to:
a)The mobile nature of the SCE population
b)Unpredictable behaviour issues
c)The need to respond to a critical incident
P&FS staff should ensure that diary planning allows for some flexibility in responding to unexpected work.
Where there is more than one member of the P&FS involved with a pupil
One of member of staff should be identified as the link professional for P&FS and will act as the point of contact for the school for any matters relating to that pupil which arise outside of planned work.
To help the work of the P&FS team
- School will ensure that suitable rooms are available for planned pieces of work.
- Class teachers, LSAs and the SENCO will be available for any planned discussions.
- The SENCO will invite parents into schools for planned meetings.
- The SENCO will notify P&FS personnel of any changes to a programme e.g. if a class/pupil is going to be out on a school trip and therefore a planned observation cannot take place.
Evaluation – with P&FS, HT/SENCO
At the end of the year there will be a review of the plan and an evaluation of the effectiveness of P&FS work.
Concerns that may arise during the year
If a Head teacher, or Senco, has concerns about a pupil these should be discussed with the relevant member of the P&FS team around the school (TAS). If more than one member of P&FS is involved with a pupil, the concern should be directed to the named link professional within the TAS.
P&FS staff should raise any concerns they may have directly with the SENCO or Headteacher. If the concern is not resolved it should be discussed with the professional line manager.
If the Headteacher has general concerns about service delivery to their school, these should be directed to the TAS. If these concerns are not resolved they should be discussed with the link P&FS manager for the school. The detail as to which individual members of staff are linked to which school, the link P&FS manager named for each school and the P&FS office which links to the school for data and file management are all contained the P&FS grid on the ‘team around the school’ protocol.
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Kathryn Forsyth – Acting Chief Executive