Agenda item

Please introduce yourself and outline your role and responsibilities.

I am the Principal of Oakley Special School in Tunbridge Wells.  I have been there for 10 years and have all the usual duties of a Head Teacher.  The school has an annual budget of £2.5 million, looks after 150 children on two sites, and employs 75 staff.

Please outline the Extended Services that Oakley Special School offers, and the way in which these services are structured and delivered.  Why did the school pursue an Extended Services pilot initiative?

It was a good opportunity for a special school to be involved in Extended Services.  I was already running some parts of Extended Services at Oakley, so was keen to expand this.  I see it at a ‘one stop shop’ for clubs, counselling services, etc. Oakley is a full service school, and we signpost pupils to other schools.  I have a Community Youth Tutor who works as a part-time teacher and runs after-school clubs for young people. I have a part-time Family Liaison Officer who works as an interface with the parents’ forum and organises parents into activities, eg erecting bird boxes in the grounds. This allows us to get to know them better, and them to get know each other better. The appointment of a Transport Director is a great practical help. I buy in art therapy one day a week and counselling services one day a week.  We want to build up capacity to be a one stop shop. The network that we have become part of has been very helpful and has been the biggest factor in our growth and in sustaining what we do.

Are the Extended Services offered by Oakley Special School delivered in collaboration with other agencies?  If so, who else is involved?

Yes, we collaborate with the Youth Service and use the model partnership, as there are so many overlaps in partners’ procedures, like safeguarding. I have people who are experienced at site management, although the site is mainly used by our own school and we don’t have many outside lettings.  We use voluntary support agencies, through which young volunteers come into the school to meet and support pupils.  I feel strongly that the most important point of a pupil’s life is their transition from being in the school to being in the community.  Via the Youth Service, we get youth workers to work with us and get to know us and the pupils.  I think this is a very good model of inclusion, as when young people leave us at 18 to go to college or into employment, there is a club that many of them are happy to come back to, and we can continue to support them.  I think it is good that they consider their links with the school to be still there.

How do you rate the level of collaboration?

I think involvement is a two-way thing, and this is important. For instance, a group of our 16+ pupils recently went on a Duke of Edinburgh residential trip to Finland and were stranded there by the volcano ash cloud which prevented them from flying home when planned. Parents of pupils in the group were confident that, as the activity had been organised by the Youth Service through the school, their children would be perfectly safe and would be looked after, and not one parent rang me in a panic about it.  The Youth Service sent a minibus to fetch the pupils home. We have a very good relationship with the Youth Service.

When pupils need art therapy or counselling services they often need them very quickly, in a time of crisis, so access to these services needs to be quick.

In your experience, what are the main benefits resulting from the provision of extended services?

Any Head Teacher has a lead role to play in their local community, but the resources of one Head Teacher and the options for one community are limited, but if you can group two communities together they can each benefit from economies of scale. Community cohesion is a benefit of Extended Services.  Oakley is a school for children and young people with moderate and severe learning difficulties, with a range of co-morbidity difficulties.  Children with those sorts of difficulties are immature and vulnerable and are not confident of joining in, but through the relationships that we can offer them they will build confidence.  Last year, we hosted a group from Finland and have been getting to know them over two years.  Our pupils were paying a return visit to this group when they became stranded. Ofsted, however, were not impressed by the relationship we have built up via the Finnish exchange, as they do not count it as ‘cohesion’.

In your view, what are the main economic, legal, social and operational challenges – if any – for the school, when providing Extended Services (for example, with regard to transport, expansion and equality of access)?

There are a number of these. Every year we spend £40–45,000 on Extended Services (which includes what we spend on the Family Liaison Officer, and therapists) but this is subsidised by the Youth Service for what we spend on a youth worker.  This spend allows us to run four clubs a week, with 8-10 pupils attending each club.  Some children have medical needs which require the attention of trained support staff.  Transport is the biggest barrier. In terms of equality of access, we just cannot provide enough services to go round!  Providing equality of access, regardless of pupils’ needs and geographic location, is a challenge. Disability discrimination and equality of access are big issues.  Through my work as a School Improvement partner, I know that transport is a common issue.  Some of the holiday activities we provide charge £5 per day, but clubs are free otherwise.

In your opinion, how can these blockages be resolved?

You need to look strategically at things which will support Extended Services. Funding is not equally and fairly rolled out across special schools.  You need to decide if Extended Services is an entitlement.  If Extended Services is limited, it should be targeted at the most vulnerable groups.  Extended Services is a vital part of the socialisation of young people with significant special needs.

In which ways, if any, might the reduction of Government funding for Extended Services in future years affect the Extended Services Oakley Special School provides?

Oakley’s Extended Services provision was part of a pilot, and the pilot money will run out, but this will not stop Extended Services.  I could not switch off Extended Services as it is part of running a good school, and if I stopped it my school would not be so good.  It is possible to set up sponsorship support, eg for a holiday activity.  We had an artist in residence who was funded by Town and Country Housing.

To what extent do you rely on voluntary efforts, and can we increase voluntary input, perhaps by getting District Councils involved?

There are two or three strands to this. Voluntary involvement is an element of some special schools but this isn’t the sort of school we are. Extended Services is no longer a special thing; it is part of general school life. Using Direct Payments, we could be training groups of people to support young people with special needs, as there is a shortage of this trained support. Also, we could feasibly charge young people who have a Direct Payment for the services that the school gives them.

In your opinion, how can Kent County Council, together with schools and other providers of Extended Services, ensure the sustainability of Extended Services into the future?

Not everyone is at the same starting point, and some groups’ needs are not being met.  It takes time to build Extended Services; over 5 years to take time to find a way to provide special services, and you need to be clear about what are the priorities.  Extended Services can help break the cycle of underachievement, poverty and deprivation, and can change lives. To help the least advantaged young people, we need to find a way to support the continued development of Extended Services.

How could Extended Services be taken forward through the transition period into adulthood, using Direct Payments?

I was part of the team which put together the Kent Transition Protocol.  Many young people have a Statement of Special Educational Needs but do not come to the attention of Children’s Social Services so do not have the opportunity to have a Direct Payment. Some conditions and disabilities, like autism, are less visible, and some young people are not ‘on the radar’ to receive services, and do not meet the criteria, so no plan is made to cater for them.  They cannot predict what support they might receive from Adult Social Services as they get older, so cannot plan for their future. In terms of disability discrimination, they are not included.

Yes, I know from the work of the KCC’s Autistic Spectrum Disorder Select Committee that people who do not meet the criteria fall through the net.  This part of this Select Committee’s work links through to the work of the Autistic Spectrum Disorder Select Committee.

In your view, how can Kent County Council, schools and external partners improve the general provision of Extended Services?

Attention could be focussed on groups where Extended Services is less evolved. There are very few special schools in the 95% of Kent schools who have taken up Extended Services; in special schools, Extended Services is much more patchy.

Is there a method of benchmarking Extended Services provision, by which schools’ performance can be compared to each other, and how could evidence be found? Does the core offer fulfil the needs of the community around you? 

2011 will be the year of speech, language and communication, as there is a massive issue about how to identify the needs and engage with young people with communication difficulties. Our strategy will be to try to spread our wings even further and ensure that everything we do is a two-way exchange.  I can’t see any other way that we can easily go forward.

You work with Youth Service youth workers, but is there a back plan if the Youth Service could not continue to deliver this service? Is there a voluntary youth provider?

It’s my budget and I will decide how to spend it!  I will seek to continue what I do, to give the best possible provision for the children I can help. But I am spending my money on what the KCC thinks I should do.  The KCC needs to give schools guidance on what is considered part of a school’s core business, and make its expectations clear.  I will spend money given to me how I think it best to spend it.

A special school in my area changed the contractor for its school transport and found that some children stopped attending activities as they did not like the new contractor.  Have you had any experience of this?

No, for our afterschool clubs we do not use KCC transport, but use our own school minibus to ferry pupils home, or taxis paid for by using some Your Choice funding.  The Head Teacher having a degree of control over how they contract and pay for transport is a key issue.

Can you clarify your views about some schools choosing to invest in Extended Services if they want to?

My view is that it is all KCC resources, and I do not see any differentiation.  If it were easier to join up the different pots of funding, that would help.  The KCC needs some joined-up thinking around this area, and it needs to have an overview of funding to ensure that the right infrastructure is in place to help Extended Services to work.

When I go out to tender for the school transport contract, I have to follow the KCC tendering regulations, but these are aimed at business and I am not a business.

Are you able to show outcomes from Extended Services, to qualify the success of it? Is it difficult to find evidence to justify Extended Services in this political/economic environment?  What research is there to back up the value of Extended Services?

We can identify the ‘softer’ outcomes of it, like every child being ‘happy’, but how do you measure happiness?  Attendance has improved since we have been offering Extended Services; non-attendance has reduced from 9% to 7%.  We have noticed increased buy-in of students, and improved behaviour.  Outcomes are better, but some outcomes are very difficult to quantify.  The school is generally a happy environment, and I am happy that the school reflects the interests of the students.  Their sense of belonging is strong, but you only find that out by asking them personally.

Do you feel that you are able to trust your partner agencies, and how sure can you be about safeguarding issues?

I am confident that people employed by KCC are fully and appropriately trained in child protection, health and safety and related issues, and am happy that I can trust such people to be key holders of my school premises.  You need to be convinced that your partners are working to the same standards as yourself.

Many schools choose not to engage Extended Services; why do you think this might be?

My view is that all schools belong to all of us and are a community resource, so there is no need to be parochial about each other’s premises or resources.  There could be a ‘kite mark’ scheme to ensure that facilities and services offered conform to a common standard.  There are some practical barriers to being able to provide Extended Services, also some political reasons to avoid it, and some snobbery around sharing facilities.

To sum up, I would say that, in the difficult future for funding, there is a moral responsibility to continue with Extended Services and to target what money is available to the young people who are most in need of support.