Agenda and draft minutes

Please provide a summary of the roles and responsibilities that your post involves.

The Minority Communities Achievement Service (MCAS) supports access and attainment issues for all minority groups, but focuses on those who are vulnerable for whatever reason.  Nationally, there are special education services for Gypsies and Travellers, as they are the group which has most problems accessing education, and the issues they experience are broader than those experienced by other ethnic minorities.  

MCAS provides advisors, works with schools and teachers on curriculum development and initiatives to raise attainment, and provides Family Liaison Officers (FLOs) whose role is to act as a link between home and school, particularly where that relationship is poor.  MCAS also responds to requests from schools for support.

What we don’t do is have a clear picture of who exactly is included in the population we are working with.  There used to be a clear caseload of families upon which we could focus our support, but now we have to rely on anecdotal information and on people identifying themselves as Gypsies or Travellers, which many simply don’t do.  Many do not declare themselves to be Gypsies or Travellers are they fear their children will be disadvantaged if they are identified as such.   We support them to deal with racial incidents, but we can never reach a full understanding of the issues they face if they do not declare  themselves.  Some families believe that Gypsies and Travellers are treated less favourably than even other minority ethnic groups, so ethnic declaration for them is still a contentious issue.

FLOs work with supporting cultural issues. Gypsy and Traveller children tend to group together and are very protective of their siblings, which is expected in their culture, but this can be perceived by schools as ‘ganging up’. FLOs need to help families to understand general expectations around school systems and support them when racism needs to be dealt with.

Some schools have developed very good practice and identify Gypsy and Traveller issues successfully by addressing cultural issues head on.  We support a school with their curriculum and strategy and build their confidence.  Where we have worked with schools in this way, there is much improvement in behaviour and relationships. One man went through his own school career not declaring his Gypsy and Traveller heritage.  As an adult, he got a job at the school and decided to reveal his background so he could be a mentor for Gypsy and Traveller children.  This has made a big change to the school’s relationship with Gypsy and Traveller families.  To improve our engagement with Gypsy and Traveller families, we need to identify their real experiences.

Access to schools is still a challenge for those Gypsies and Travellers who move around, although Kent has a very low mobile Gypsy and Traveller population, with most families being on KCC or District Council-run or privately-run permanent sites, or settled in housing.  The current schools admissions scheme presents a big challenge to those families  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

Please provide an outline of the roles and responsibilities that your post involves, and an overview of the services supplied by the Youth Offending Team.

From 1982 to 1999 I worked as a Probation Officer in Kent, then as a manager at Medway Youth Offending Service (YOS), until I joined the Kent YOS in 2004.  I took up my current post in October 2010.

I have an overview of the relationship between YOS and Education and how they relate to each other and work together.  We share the aim of keeping as many young people as possible in mainstream school for as long as possible.  There are some behavioural issues that need to be dealt with, but schools are generally fairly creative about how they approach these. There are forums such as the ‘Managed Move’ schemes in Ashford and Shepway which aim to promote and support inclusion.

There are five education workers, at least one in each YOS team, whose primary role is to liaise with schools to keep young people in school as long as possible, and if that fails, to liaise with alternative education providers. Providers of the alternative curriculum are very receptive and understanding of young people’s needs. They work with young people who often have very challenging circumstances, but they engage well and achieve reasonable outcomes.

There is increased use of reduced timetables, in which a young person attends school for maybe as few as five hours a week.  Some of this is out-of-hours work.  A young person might be put on reduced hours and a reduced curriculum for three weeks or so before being supported into re-integration.  Year 11 is a real challenge for many young people who are not academic and have no interest in exams.  Many pupils in their final year get out of the habit of attending school. For them, some schools will agree to a reduced timetable or education at home.  This decision would be made as part of the school’s pastoral support plan. 67 – 75% of young people of statutory school age do a full 25 hour week programme of education.

Problems often arise when a young person leaves school.  If they have problems with learning or engaging, these problems will emerge at that time, but the picture that we work with is a fragmented one.  YOS provision includes two integrated resettlement officers, who work with convicted young people who have served a custodial sentence (although, in Kent, there are very few young people in this category). These officers support young people upon their release with issues such as finding accommodation, accessing education and doing some basic skills training.  The ‘New Skills, New Lives’ Project, which has government funding, is used by the KCC to support 20 young people in a vulnerable learners scheme.  These initiatives have had successes, and employers have found that the literacy and numeracy levels of the young people involved have been higher than they expected.  Literacy and numeracy projects can be accessed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.