Is it time to review your parent communications strategy?

Texting parents is one big step beyond sending a letter home with the child, but technology is moving fast and apps are offering more secure and engaging routes, argues Geoff Jones.

According to a recent report published by the government, “Attempts by schools to engage parents in their children’s learning are unlikely to be successful if they represent a ‘bolt-on’ to mainstream activities.”

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      string(280) "How do you work with parents with severe alcohol and drug problems while getting the best for their children? Steve Bambrough and Sophie Kershaw report on how the Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) have pioneered non-adversarial approaches which have delivered benefits for all."
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      string(366) "... lifestyle froma substance misuse centred one to a family-centred one. Its transparency and fairness isevidenced in the ‘therapeutic trial for change’ which are individualised, time limited andhighly co-ordinated methods of testing a parent’s actual capacity to change within theirchild’s timescales and evidencing this for court. So ..."
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      string(5663) "has a clear focus on the impact on the child of their parents’ substancemisuse and parents are expected to aim for abstinence from street drugs and alcohol.n The treatment and support plan for the parent is grounded in what we know fromresearch about effective interventions.www.teachingtimes.com n Vol 4.6Families Every Child Journal87n Parents will receive support and encouragement as they address their substancemisuse and other problems, including transparency about the problems they need toaddress and how, and with strong support and information available for wider familymembers, such as through family group conferences and direct work with fatherfigures and other adults close to the children.n All parents will be given the opportunity to enter the programme but, in cases wherethe specialist team considers that prognosis for change is poor, the timescale forshowing engagement and commitment to the programme is appropriate for the child,and should include provision for parallel planning of alternative options for the child’sfuture placement.The diagram below illustrates the model for assessment and intervention:Working togetherThe clinical team which operates as the FDAC’s expert assessment and intervention teamis made up of child protection social workers, a clinical nurse specialist, substance misuseworkers, a child psychiatrist and an adult psychiatrist and is thus a combination of adultand child specialists which is of great importance for this team’s work. In addition, we havea team of ‘parent mentor’ volunteers who, crucially, have been through similar experiencesof crisis and addiction to the parents we work with. Schools were also involved both inmonitoring parents’ relapse into substance misuse where this came to their notice. Otherexamples of school involvement included developing new practice, such as providingcounseling, and holding supporting children’s need meetings at school, as well as helpingchildren with communications and speech issues.Vol 4.6 n www.teachingtimes.comFamiliesEvery Child Journal88The practice of the team is based on rapid and intensive support and assessment anda delivery and brokering of interventions aimed at changing the parenting lifestyle froma substance misuse centred one to a family-centred one. Its transparency and fairness isevidenced in the ‘therapeutic trial for change’ which are individualised, time limited andhighly co-ordinated methods of testing a parent’s actual capacity to change within theirchild’s timescales and evidencing this for court. So, as well as regular testing and treatmentfor substances, the parents could be involved in individual or group therapeutic work, suchas mentalisation-based treatments, video-interaction guidance, and/or group which istailored to their needs. In addition, the team also delivers treatments such as motivationalinterviewing, Social Behavioural Network Therapy (SBNT), Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT),harm-minimisation, anxiety control and individual key working.This approach has led to the social workers in the team delivering therapeutic workand intensive engagement with a family, which can be difficult to deliver in other types ofsocial work in the modern climate. It is difficult and demanding work as one would expectof working with such vulnerable and damaged families where there are striking andunexpected successes and disappointments. Child protection work, as shown in recentresearch by Ruth Neil in the University of West Scotland, is corrosive and damagingto social workers’ lives and emotional and physical health, and it is no less so for theFDAC team but the use of a transparent and fair model, which gives the best evidence-based chance for change, contributes significantly to the teams’ sense of purpose andachievement and commitment.This has been recognised in The Home Office Drug Strategy, the MunroReview of Child Protection and the Family Justice Review where FDAC is cited asan example of excellence. It has also received awards, including the 2011 LondonSafeguarding Award, the 2011 Guardian Public Service Award for Service Delivery toChildren, and the 2012 Working in Partnership Award at the BMJ Improving HealthAwards, among others.Case study: MillieA London borough issued proceedings for a baby girl, seven weeks old, whose mother(we will call her Millie) was 27 years old and the father (Jack) was 26. The parents wereseparated during pregnancy.The family were first referred to children’s services by the mother’s drug worker whenshe became pregnant, and she had refused to engage and had a transient lifestyle.Millie had a decade of class A drug use. At assessment, FDAC concluded she was adependant drug user, who used heroin and crack two to three times daily for the majorityof her pregnancy. She was entrenched in a drug using lifestyle – her use was chaotic, shewas currently homeless and was not claiming benefits. Her engagement with prescribingservices was poor and so her methadone prescription ceased. Millie has an extensivecriminal history, with more than 25 convictions and was sentenced to a term in prisona year before her pregnancy. Millie did not access ante-natal care, the child was bornwithdrawing and treated on a neo-natal ward with Oramorph (an oral morphine that treatsopiate withdrawal) for four weeks after birth. Millie returned to her prescribing service formethadone during this time.Jack has a similarly long history of class A use, although was not a dependent orchaotic user at the point of FDAC assessment.The baby was placed into foster care upon"
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Special Needs

The Family Drug and Alcohol Court

11 Dec 2014

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      string(374) "... others in the school, the loc al andwider community should be link ed to the curriculumwhenever possible. This could be done throughcoursework, goal setting and review. Schemes of Workcould b e reviewed over time to include serviceopportunities with accreditation as appropriate. Teacherswill need to plan different kinds of service opportunitiesin ..."
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      string(5637) ".The Ser ve to Lead programme,with itsreliance on team work, can bring thisvalue to life. It shows a commitment todoing, not just saying.Curriculum links and inspection. Projectsand initiatives to serve others in the school, the loc al andwider community should be link ed to the curriculumwhenever possible. This could be done throughcoursework, goal setting and review. Schemes of Workcould b e reviewed over time to include serviceopportunities with accreditation as appropriate. Teacherswill need to plan different kinds of service opportunitiesin order to involve pupils with a wide range of abilitiesand interests. In this way, Ofsted requirements on practicalcitizenship, moral and spiritual developmen t becomemuch more achievable. Pupils and teachers shouldcollaborate on target setting (goals for service and goalsfor learning) for significant projects. Pupil self-assessmentand teacher assessment will be impor tant. School andexternal accreditation should be sought when possible.Sk ills de velopment across the curriculum. To ols forthink ing, communications and leadership c an beintroduced to pupils in ordinary lessons, tutorial p eriodsand special off-timetable activities. A pupil service andleadership programme enables these tools to be applied,their use reviewed and learning reinfor ced, in keepingwith modern ideas on training in a ‘Learning Organisation’.Examples of useful to ols include:● Agendas for planning● Charts for organising information● Mind Maps for reviewing● Target diagrams for applying criteria● Flow charts for problem solving stages● Questioning for thoroughnessPar tnership and serving the community. Par tnershipshould be a core principle and operating practice. Thisincludes planning and implementing partnership withparents, pupils, staff, industry, government, the local LEA,chur ches and other faith groups and voluntar yorganisa tions. Partnership should include seek ingma terial support, funding and time from partners, andoffering benefits in return. Having a structure for pupilparticipation and service really helps when creating apr ogramme of voluntar y and charitable pr ojects,applying for national awards or seeking sponsorship andfunding. Success becomes likelier if a strong frameworkalr eady exists in scho ol for pupils t o ent er intopartnerships responsibility. All pupils will have provenrecords of fulfilling commitments.Building self-respect and skills to improve behaviour andattendance. Potential exists for a pupil service and leadershipprogramme to improve pupil behaviour for the better. In turn,this could have implications for parent choice and academicresults. Disaffected pupils with poor self-esteem (and hencepoor conduct records) may find, in the Serve to Lead initiative,an encouraging environment for positive self-development.Pupils who have tidied up, cleaned desks and scrapedchewing gum off them as part of a team taking a pride intheir form room, or taking environmental responsibility foranother part of the school, may be less likely to drop litter.Being trusted with responsibility and the chance to lead, andto be thanked and acknowledged for serving others in theschool and local community, may have a positive impact onself-respect. If success at school is about more than justTwice now, an assessor has descr ibed the ordinary organisationof routine activities by pupils as “the best registration period Ihave ever seen in over twenty years of teaching”53CitizenshipCitizenshipCitizenshipCitizenshipCitizenship ‘Service’ rolesNovember/December 2005 Managing Schools Todayclassroom learning every day,then incentives to attendmultiply for low achieverswho feel unsuccessful inacademic life. School mayseem more relevant if real,transferable, job-related skillscan be learned and practised.Regular use of even a fewtools for thinking andcommunication over severalyears can broaden theoutlook of pupils and helpthem see their problemsdifferently.Most schools with lots ofbadly-behaved pupils haveto rely on sanctions as a main strategy for controllingpoor b ehaviour. A pupil ser vice and leadershipprogramme will not succeed in a school where disciplineis weak but, by definition, the need to apply sanctionsregularly means many pupils are not yet at one with theschool’s values. Many paren ts and teachers wouldwelcome new ideas on positive ways of promotinghigher standards that fo cus on pupil engagement. If apupil service and leadership programme wor ks for evena few pupils, it may be worth the investment.Primary to secondary and KS3 t o KS4 transfer. Dips inlevels of performance in Year 7, after the peaks of Year 6,are well k nown. Year 6 pupils have of ten been holdingpositions of formal and informal responsibility in theirprimary schools. They have been expected to exemplifysound school values and set an example. With Serve toLead, this can be built upon, rather than lost through theshock of being the youngest again, without seriousresponsibilities and exposed to the harsher, cruder, lesswork-focused peer pr essure of much secondary schoollife. Similarly, the transition from Year 9 to Year 10 couldbe more seamless and attractive if pupils are used to theform-jobs system and can lead exciting projects in Years10 and 11. These projects c an involve younger pupils,including the new Year 7.Morale – the winning qualityMorale can be thought of as a positive willingness towork for goals and for the team. Morale is the definingcharacteristic of a healthy ent erprise, form or school. I tis the single factor most likely to lead to its success."
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Leadership

Pupils as school leaders

1 Nov 2006

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      string(252) "This joint report from school mental health organisation Minds Ahead and the education and youth think-tank LKMCo, concludes that a scheme modelled on Teach First should be set up in schools to train mental health specialists to work with young people."
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      string(382) "... such as stress and social media should happen alongside communication with parents so that they can play a full role in reinforcing healthy routines such as limiting screen time. Safeguarding leads and SENCOs should receive thorough mental health training and should work closely with parents (where appropriate) to implement appropriate"
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      string(252) "This joint report from school mental health organisation Minds Ahead and the education and youth think-tank LKMCo, concludes that a scheme modelled on Teach First should be set up in schools to train mental health specialists to work with young people."
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      string(5641) "The training would involve learning how to manage problems that children face at school such as “bullying, exam stress and low moods”. The research suggests placing graduates with a 2:1 degree or higher into a school for two years of on-the-job training. Adopting this type of framework to train mental health specialists would help attract “high-calibre candidates”, the report claimed. Main Findings: NHS figures suggest that those with mental health issues have the same life expectancy as the general population did 50 years ago. Mental health issues can have a knock-on impact on school attendance behaviour and engagement – all of which in turn hamper educational attainment. Suicide is the leading cause of death, for five-nineteen year olds. One in three CAMHS referrals by schools are turned down, and one in six are turned down overall. 75% of mental health problems begin before the age of 18 and where early signs are unaddressed, escalation can lead to long term struggles with physical health, education and work. Yet the incidence of mental health problems amongst young people is sky rocketing and services cannot cope. There is considerable uncertainty as to the cause of the increased incidence of mental ill-health amongst young people and the phenomenon is not unique to the UK. Posited explanations include the role of social media, a high-pressure education system and labour market uncertainty. A combination of under-resourcing, lack of expertise in schools and difficulty commissioning and accessing the right kind services has led to patchy and insufficient access to support. Schools cannot be expected to tackle these serious issues single handed, but at present teachers do not know how to help students access mental health services outside of school. Cutting schools loose from their local authorities has made commissioning and accessing specialist support harder, particularly where academies are not part of a multi-academy trusts that provide mental health expertise. A number of structural changes within the health sector have sought to improve provision. However, whilst well intentioned, these changes have yet to be properly implemented. Moreover, severe lack of funding and a shortage of adequately trained specialists mean the government is likely to miss many of its own targets in relation to mental health. Recommendations: A new school-based mental health development programme should be established to create a new cadre of pre-clinical mental health specialists working in schools. This could build on the successes of Teach First, Think Ahead, Unlocked Grads and FrontLine. Campaigns and careers outreach programmes for school-aged pupils should be developed to encourage more young people to consider careers in youth mental health. The government should call a halt to real-term falls in per pupil funding by ensuring school funding keeps pace with increasing costs and pupil numbers. Ofsted should publish an audit how inspectors are reporting on its new judgements relating to pupil mental health and wellbeing. Ofsted should draw on this to provide inspectors with improved guidance and training so that judgement becomes an effective lever for improvement. Plans to make PSHE teaching a statutory requirement should be accelerated and PSHE teaching in relation to pupil wellbeing should be delivered solely by teachers with the skills and expertise to skilfully handle sensitive issues. PSHE teaching should focus on specific issues such as learning to deal with stress or learning about healthy use of social media as per the latest PSHE Association Curriculum. Schools should recognise that mental health problems can constitute a Special Educational Need or Disability and ensure they identify relevant needs as such, so that pupils can access support and so that school funding can be adjusted and targeted accordingly. Schools should ensure they have in-house mental-health experts, potentially shared between a number of schools to make support more affordable. Multi academy trusts should either advise their schools on mental health commissioning or commission support centrally across their schools. Meanwhile, support services such as London Leadership Strategy, Challenge Partners and The Key should provide advice that helps schools commission the right services.School leaders should be true to their moral purpose and prioritise pupil needs in the face of perceived accountability pressures, so that decisions are taken with due consideration for their impact on pupil and teacher wellbeing. Schools should review potential risk factors for pupil wellbeing within their school community. Such factors might include stressed teachers, pared back PSHE provision; unhealthy demands on pupils and teachers; and inappropriate forms of behaviour management. Tools such as the NCB’s school wellbeing framework can help with this. Unless there is a clear reason (such as safeguarding concerns) not to do so, parents should be placed at the heart of decisions taken about their child’s wellbeing and mental health. Teaching about issues such as stress and social media should happen alongside communication with parents so that they can play a full role in reinforcing healthy routines such as limiting screen time. Safeguarding leads and SENCOs should receive thorough mental health training and should work closely with parents (where appropriate) to implement appropriate"
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Leadership

Schools And Youth Mental Health: A Briefing On Current Challenges And Ways Forward

2 Jul 2018

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      string(5709) "getting ideas is not the hard part. Once you send out a few areas that you would like help on, ideas come. Most people want one of two things when they offer their input. They either want to stay involved to see it through to an outcome, or simply to see some progress. When there is a simple process in place for these two things to happen, the appetite for getting involved is quite amazing. All of these principles apply whether you are a school 50 pupils or a school of 1500, processes can be simple and scalable, but your challenge will be too manage the ideas rather than just try your best with finite resources. For this we use a simple model.Step 1 – Harvest IdeasSend some clear messages that you want to focus on. Improving the play area, healthy eating, resources to build a stimulating ready area, engaging parents and carers, etc, etc. Once the ideas start flowing and your process has credibility you will receive all sorts of ideas, but never be afraid to give it a steer. In the past this has been tried through the ‘idea box’ in the reception. For many schools these don’t do too much more than gather dust. Why? Simple, it’s not high involvement and it doesn’t get people interested. At best it is read some time after by a member of staff who may acknowledge it, and perhaps implement it. It doesn’t excite anyone! For success you will need a more open, modern approach that encourages people to share ideas, get talking and grown ideas that will suck in resources. How many people stand in the playground at home time with a smart phone? Use this time and get them talking. www.innovation4education.com is a platform you can use to achieve this with your own school ‘space’ in which to capture discussions.Stand on the shoulders of giantsWhatever you are looking to solve, whether it is extra boxes for a topic or something more radical, the chances are someone has already done similar. Using a shared platform will help you put out that request and someone somewhere will have some advice – get connected. This doesn’t mean you can’t put your own spin on it, it means you can spend your time making it even better. Apple weren’t actually the first company to bring many of their concepts to the market, but they did it better and they tweaked things and made them even more customer friendly giving an impression that they were leading pioneers.Step 2 – Be selectiveThis is where the management starts. You can’t do everything, as you will have limited resources and limited time. You need to invest a small amount of time from someone with a genuine understanding of innovation and select what you are going to progress. Read ideas, never dismiss anything, always be positive but also be realistic. You could decide not to progress something, so thank those involved and explain why. You could decide that now is not the time, but set a date to review this idea or could set out next steps to progress this idea. An open platform such as Innovation4education ensures this is a transparent process and you will quickly educate your contributors towards your priorities. Make your decisions against your school values, your mission and you current priorities. Being really proactive at this stage is a make or break for success and you will need a clear guiding strategy appropriate to the size of your school.Step 3 – Make it happenThe next stage of managing the innovation is to implement it – make it happen. This is more about managing a project than being creative. By now you will have selected an idea and agreed to do something with it. Don’t halt the creativity here, but steer it. Be really open on your communication. For example if you’ve had ideas about improving a reading area commit to doing something and set some objectives. You might want to limit space available in the school, a time to get it done and an objective of a certain group of students you particularly want to attract into reading more. Set those parameters and define the creativity. At this stage you will also want to appoint a lead. They only have to lead – not do all the work! Make it someone involved in the idea, or someone with genuine commitment to it. Have a point of contact will make volunteers feel it is worthwhile to get involved. Once they do, your volunteers (internal and external) will feel ownership and this is when really amazing things can start happening.A good practice here is called ‘stage-gating’.If an idea is a bit bigger, then doing it bit stages is less of a risk in your innovation. If someone wants to re-do the outside area, it can become overwhelming so set an initial aim that is smaller. In some areas this might be a pilot where you can see how popular an idea is before committing to too much time, money or upheaval. Be clear on when you will review it, then expand your project when you feel more confident that the investment is worth it. This is how you will know whether you are putting your resources to best use, or whether greater gains could be made elsewhere.Step 4 – Look back as well as forwardAlways evaluate your work, it’s the only way to improve you innovation effectiveness. It’s another great benefit of charting your ideas and progress on an innovation platform for all to see – you can go back and see if you achieved what you meant to. Go back to the idea originator/s and ask if things are now better. You have to accept that ideas will grow and deviate along the way, that’s what great innovation is, but if you spiral all over the place you will never deliver"
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Leadership

A step-by-step guide to successful innovation

16 Jan 2018