National disparity in the numbers of Education Welfare Officers impacts on schoolsAn investigation for Children & Young People Now magazine undertaken by Lauren Higgs has revealed enormous variations in local authorities education welfare staffing levels.
The figures were obtained through Freedom of Information requests, and show how specialist education disciplines like EWOs and educational psychologist have become marginalised under the Every Child Matters rush to introduce more integrated working. This follows on from a report published earlier in the year by the Children's Services Professional Network in which they warned that the government's squeeze on public sector finances was threatening the future of education welfare services.
The big concern is that more and more staff are being asked to take on "hybrid" roles that end-up diluting our expertise & undermining our professional status, and this is being further compounded by increasing numbers of specialist education professional teams becoming accountable to local authority senior managers who have no direct knowledge or understanding of the disciplines involved.
John Chowcat, General Secretary of Aspect, told C&YP Now that "These figures reflect longstanding variations between local authorities. This underlines the need for national frameworks and standards. It is a relatively small part of Children's Services, but what they do to improve attendance is a really important expertise that needs to be protected. Council's could be missing a trick. Providing young people with a postcode lottery of access to services is unacceptable."
Similarly, Malcolm Trobe, Policy Director for the Association of School and College Leaders, said "It's important to get continuity so education welfare officers know the families in the area. One education welfare officer for 5,000 youngsters is a big patch, especially if they are covering a large geographical area. It's an identified shortfall, so a reconsideration of how training is funded would not go amiss."
According to the C&YP Now figures,
Oldham Council has the worst ratio of EWO to pupils @ 1: 18,246
but the London Borough of Kensington is the best resourced local authority with an incredible 1 x EWO for every 505 pupils!
New government figures released in response to a Parliamentary question have revealed that the number of parents prosecuted for failing to ensure their children's regular school attendance more than quadrupled over the 8 year period between 2001 - 2008. The figures show that 9,506 parents were prosecuted in the magistrates courts in 2008 compared with only 1,961 in 2001.
However, over the same reporting period, the number of half-day sessions lost due to unauthorised absences actually rose from 0.72% in the school year 2000/01 to slightly over one percent in 2007/08.
John Bangs, Head of Education at the National Union of Teachers, told 'Children & Young People Now' magazine that "there is no magic solution to truancy, because it's often the result of massive pressure and dysfunction in families. Truancy can only be prevented by addressing that pressure and dysfunction." Bangs then went on to say "Education Welfare Officers are so important. I would love to see more of them. Their work has sometimes gone un-noticed but they are brilliant at detecting problems" and he called on Local Authorities to reinvest in their Education Welfare Services, as he believes that the recent cutting back of our services has made it a lot more difficult for schools to tackle truancy issues.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, when a reporter from 'C&YP Now' magazine approached the DCSF for a response, they felt "unable to comment."
New from the Department for Children, Schools and Families - Guidance on the Employment of Children
This guidance document explains the key provisions of the various laws on child employment. It include
'best practice' advice to help Local Authorities deal with the sorts of practical questions they regularly
face. It should also enable employers to operate as prudently as possible within the legal framework both
for their benefit and to the benefit of the young people who are working for them.
More...
Published August 2009
NASWE summary of the Governments position regarding Schools...More
The National Children's Bureau have just published a new book entitled 'Building Resilience in Families Under Stress' which explains how child welfare professionals can help support parenting in families affected by both parental mental health problems and / or parental substance misuse. As well as examining current service responses, the book also:
The publication cost £20.00 (£16.00 for NCB members) and is particularly relevant to professionals who are directly or indirectly involved in providing statutory or voluntary services to family members affected by parental mental health problems, substance misuse or alcohol misuse. You can order the book via any of the following contact details:
Email: ncb@centralbooks.com
Telephone 0845 458 9910
Fax 0845 458 9912
NCB, c/o Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN
School Absenteeism and the Implementation of Truancy-Related Penalty Notices This paper derives from the author's recent research into disadvantaged children's access to compulsory education in England.
Examining the national attendance strategies and practice, the author interrogates the current trend towards a more punitive approach to addressing the problem of school absenteeism while debating the issue of irresponsible parents in terms of parental responsibility.
Using the data collected from 150 Local Education Authorities and a survey among Education Welfare managers, the research study reported in this paper measures the association between authorities' readiness to issue penalty notices and the change made in pupils' absence rates between 2004 and 2006.
Presenting the findings of the research study, the author argues that truancy is a complex social and historical issue and that poor parenting is itself a symptom of several underlying social problems and the circle of disadvantage. Therefore, the findings of the study call for more efforts and measures to address the underlying social problems and to break the circle of disadvantage of the families that most truanting children come from.
The first document highlights the reality of the case work undertaken by EWO's.
The second document covers an audit of the needs of 197 children.
The third report and recommendations are available to members only in the Members Area.
This is a comprehensive online resource aimed at Social Workers and people in a similar position working with children and young people. The website provides practical information broken down in to highly targeted bite sized chunks. Problems are described in layman's language, defined with topics to think about, sensible suggestions to consider, what not to do's and when to consider more specialist help. Once you have accessed the site, it is highly possible that you may subsequently decide to re-visit it again to uncover further helpful advice on how to respond helpfully to children and young people's troubling behaviour, build up their self-esteem and promote their positive mental well-being.
The content has benefited from the feedback of many professionals in the field and is constantly evolving as more feedback is received.
For access to the latest materials and more information regarding forced marriage and tackling "honour" based violence in communities visit the website Every Child Matters.
A fresh new look at Education Supervision Orders (funded by the Paul Hamlyn
Foundation), with the latest ideas in best practice and guidance, including real life case studies.
The Report by the National Children's Bureau aims to increase the capacity of local authorities to deliver education supervision orders.
For more information and to download a copy of the ESO report.
'Are you analysing figures or data - thinking about how things compare to others and how you might present your findings in the most effective way? Sometimes it can even be difficult to get your head around all the various statistical interpretations - do I use the mean, median or mode, and what on earth is polarity?
'The following, simple to use, tool is designed to help practitioners make their data work better for them. It use practical examples to uncomplicate the different statistical aspects and includes a useful data glossary that explains all the different meanings.'
Statistics Guide (555KB).
Customised local neighbourhood statistics from the Office of National Statistics.
New resource created by Roger Thompson focusing on Behaviour and Attendance
Beatbullying has recently relaunched its main website
www.beatbullying.org.
In addition there is also a young people's site at www.bbclic.com.
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Regrettably there are insufficient funds to continue with the activity fund at the moment.
NASWE national council is exploring ways to rectify this situation by seeking alternative funding streams.
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