NAHT conducted a small scale random enquiry after the Laming Report and discovered that there is a long way to go before there are joined up services at ground level.
Of the Branch Officials surveyed in Local Authorities, representing more than 1000 schools, there was little evidence of swift and easy referral to many of the services required to ensure that children are safe. The additional services required to ensure that children are able to thrive, are similarly hard to access.
All responses showed that access was never easy and, when referrals are made, they are certainly not quick. Some Social Services departments have a high turnover of staff so that schools and families have constantly changing personnel to work with. Sometimes there are long delays between initial contact and response; there is little sharing of information and meetings are often called at short notice making it difficult for teachers to respond.
NAHT has the greatest respect for colleagues in Social Services and we recognise that they are often working in highly-charged situations and many have impossible workloads. They are too busy ‘fire-fighting’ difficult cases and often find themselves caught up in highly bureaucratic administration that prevents the essential early intervention work that can avoid later crisis.
The Common Assessment Framework is misunderstood and actually delays the human intervention that distressed families require.
NAHT is also concerned about the availability of Education Psychologists and Speech Therapists. These are often in short supply, and suffer from random allocation processes that do not appear to take into account the demand at school level.
This situation cannot be allowed to continue. The top-down restructuring of Local Authorities put the responsibility for swift and easy referral in the hands of Directors of Children’s Services. This has become “the job from hell”.[1]
NAHT believes that only a radical re-think of the way in which services for children operate will begin to solve these problems and provide children with access to the wider workforce.
We believe that there should be a multi-disciplinary team set up to work in schools (or clusters of schools) and with schools that will provide the front-line services children require. This would enable an easy link between identification and action that will help to secure the safety of children and may even save lives.
Mick Brookes, General Secretary NAHT comments as follows:
“This cannot wait; there are children at risk in our communities right now because they are not getting the support they need. The Laming Report made it clear that there was a job of work to be done and the excruciatingly slow progress being made in ensuring swift and easy referral, cannot be tolerated.
We call upon Government and Local Authorities to set up pilot projects along the lines proposed by the NAHT to bring immediate support for children, their families and teachers, who have correctly identified risk but are frustrated in getting help and support.
Instead of spending millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money ferrying test-papers around the country, the Government should divert much of that money into supporting hundreds of children, thus enabling them access to better education, and better lives. The Government needs to sort out its priorities and put increasingly scarce resources where they are most needed.”
Press Office, Brighton Centre
01273 323026
Mick Brookes, NAHT General Secretary
Mobile: 07976 919353
Brighton Thistle Hotel: 01273 206700
Brighton Centre: 01273 323026
Kathryn James, Senior Assistant Secretary
Policy, Politics, Education
Mobile: 07968 587116
Lesley Gannon,
Assistant Secretary
Policy, Politics, Education
Mobile: 07590 771744
