Management Information Sheet
Guidance Adviser services to schools from September 2015
As part of our restructuring of Children's Services we are changing the way we support young people who are NEET or at risk of becoming so.
The Department for Education's statutory guidance on participation states that schools have a duty to secure independent careers guidance for all year 8-13 pupils. Local authorities are directed to identify young people who are at risk of, and those who are not participating and target their resources on those who need them most with particular regard to young people not in mainstream education.
We want to ensure that children, young people and their parents and carers receive help early, before problems escalate. This means working with families to assess all of their needs, including working with teenagers who need extra support to prepare for employment or training, when they leave school.
Guidance Advisers and Young Persons Advisers currently work with a range of vulnerable young people including care leavers, young parents and teenagers with special educational needs. From September there will be a reduced numbers of Guidance Advisers which requires a change in the way in which we currently work with schools, colleges and other learning providers.
Young people are already being supported by a range of other professionals, such as staff in early help, Norfolk Family Focus, our children with disabilities team and via services for looked after children. From September these teams will also provide information and advice to enable young people they are supporting to make successful transitions into post 16 education, employment and training pathways.
Guidance Advisers will provide consultation to learning providers and, where appropriate, one to one support for young people. They will be allocated to learning providers by a banding system based on number and complexity of risk of NEET learners. Based on the principle that the statutory responsibility for careers information, advice and guidance rests with the provider, it is not expected that advisers will deliver any direct interventions to year groups below year 11.
Settings that are to be included in the banding model will include:
- Mainstream secondary schools
- Complex needs schools
- Short Stay Schools
- Specialist non maintained schools / Alternative Providers
- Further Education colleges
- Work based learning providers
Banding will operate on a sliding scale. Time allocation is not likely to exceed any more than 10 days per year for any individual setting. The Guidance Adviser will be the main point of contact for all schools and post 16 providers in respect of NEET prevention work. Delivery into a school will focus on the at risk NEET cohort and could feature any combination of:
- Direct one to one work with at risk NEET students including guidance interventions. This will predominantly take place in the spring and summer terms.
- Group work including brokering of students' access to the Post 16 opportunity landscape and entry to the labour market. This will predominantly take place in the spring and summer terms.
- Consultancy to the setting on approaches to identification of, interventions and support for the at risk NEET group and on specialist Post 16 pathways for learners with LDD
- Assisting the school to identify other Children's Services professionals or wider agencies who can support their students
Delivery will be undertaken by either the Guidance Adviser or the Young Persons Advisers depending on the needs and activities identified.
It is not expected that, in the main, Guidance Advisers or the Young Persons Advisers will support students with individual applications to Post 16 opportunities, preparation for or attendance at interviews or other forms of practical transition support. Such support however, may be provided as part of summer holiday activity work once young people leave their settings and their plans change or fall through.
The Education Health Care Plan Co-ordinator together with the school will be responsible for overseeing the post 16 transition process for students with an Education and Health and Care Plan unless a young person is at risk of NEET (and considering the involvement of wider Children's Services professionals). This will include formally consulting with Post 16 providers in respect of their ability to meet the young person's SEN as per requirements in the SEN Code of Practice 2015. Guidance Advisers will work closely with EHCP Coordinators and provide consultancy support for young people not at risk of NEET but who may require specialist Post 16 FE pathways. Schools will provide transition support as per their statutory duties to prepare young people for adulthood and independence, as described in Chapter 8 of the SEN Code of Practice. EHCP Coordinators will lead on arrangements for cases requiring higher needs funding including making applications in the small number of cases where out of county placements are being sought.
The approaches outlined above are part of a broader operational model for careers guidance support which is based on a split of 80% of adviser resource with young people who are not in education, employment or training and 20% of adviser resource on preventative NEET work.
If you would like any further information or would like to discuss the new operational model please get in touch with Karin Porter, Participation Strategy Manager on 01603 679174 or at karin.porter@norfolk.gov.uk