The Pathways for All evaluation report contains five specific recommendations for the programme and below, we’ve outlined how we’ve responded to the recommendations and our plans for the future.
The recommendations
1. Review effectiveness of Pathways for All delivery structure utilising Educational Diversity staff for mainstream schools
To date, we have:
- Established regular conversations with schools, Educational Diversity and the council about delivery effectiveness
- Reviewed school onboarding procedures to ensure that external staff have more immediate access to school staff and resources (e.g. room, badges, policies etc).
Moving forward, we will:
- Explore alternative models of Engagement Coach deployment
- Communicate clearly that Engagement Coaches are ‘project staff’ assigned to support mainstream schools, as opposed to ‘Educational Diversity staff’.
- Continue to develop strategies to ensure mainstream school experience ongoing support, despite engagement coaches not being permanently based within their respective settings.
2. Build on existing data recording and analysis used by ensuring activity recorded by engagement coaches complies with data management standards
To date, we have:
- Talked to Engagement Coaches about the ease of their current reporting structures and removed key barriers
- Provided further training and support around data-recording accuracy and standardisation
Moving forward, we will:
- Work alongside DfE Post 16 Research team to both increase project learning and feed into national data improvements
- Have data as a standing agenda item within the Employment and Skills strategic and operational groups to make progress towards a comprehensive town-wide data sharing approach and system
3. Strengthen the link between the Pathways for All project and any statutory transition processes at school where appropriate
To date, we have:
- Ensured that the transition approach is discussed at every steering group meeting.
- Established a working party to review and develop transition practices and paperwork.
- Strengthened links between the Pathways for All steering group and the council’s Employment and Skills governance groups.
Moving forward, we will:
- Work with the Employment and Skills strategic and operational group (town-wide) to develop a standardised approach to transition across all secondary settings.
4. Consider the potential benefits of peer-to-peer support activities
To date, we have:
- Reviewed the Engagement Coaches delivery framework to identify opportunities for group activities.
- Agreed group sessions (where appropriate for the young person) e.g. visits to college, CV-writing workshops.
- Initiated ongoing work with the Youth Advisors to identify further peer support and research opportunities
Moving forward, we will:
- Explore the potential for the Year 12 and Year 11 Pathways for All cohorts to share learning and experience*
*Due to the highly vulnerable nature of the cohort, some of the young people may not be willing or feel that they are able to engage with peer-to-peer support.
5. Conduct further analysis examining whether or not the young people receiving the highest number of Engagement Coach sessions also improved most in terms of reducing their risk of NEET
Due to the nature of the Risk of NEET indicators (RONI) assessment, we would not expect to see risk of NEET reduce in some of the categories as a direct impact of the project. This is because a number of the factors (e.g. SEN needs, exclusion (where this has already occurred), home instability etc) are likely to be ongoing challenges that require longer term multi-agency support
Moving forward, we will:
- Complete analysis of existing data to see whether the number of session correlates with NEET status as of March 2022.
Summary
Pathways for All has made, and will continue to make, a concerted effort to respond to the recommendations provided by evaluators at Edge Hill University and we will continue to work on our future development targets to further improve the project’s future sustainability.
It is important to recognise that projects targeted at NEET prevention, such as Pathways for All, are all subjected to system level challenges, such as coherent national and local data sharing systems and agreements, in relation to post-16 transition.
We are passionate about overcoming those systemic challenges via the strong partnership approach in Blackpool and by working collectively with both the project and town-wide Employment and Skills strategy groups.
Victoria O’Farrell, headteacher at Educational Diversity (pupil referral unit), Blackpool , said:
“Pathways for All provides vital support to young people who might otherwise fall out of education or training altogether. Through collaborating with local schools to identify children at risk of becoming NEET, the engagement coaches can work proactively to make sure vulnerable young people are supported to fulfil their potential.”
Read the Executive Summary here
Thank you to Porticus and The Dulverton Trust for their generous support of this work, as part of the IntegratED programme, and to all our core funders, without whom none of this work would be possible.