CHILDREN’S SERVICES
Terry Piggott
where due to family circumstances a child becomes
the main family carer. The child and the family are
is overseeing his
struggling, but the child is too scared to tell anyone. The
local authority’s
implementation
Making
school knows something is wrong, but not who they
can turn to in order to get help or to find out more.
In this instance, the pastoral manager or other
authorised user in the school would be able to check
ContactPoint and see if anyone else has been working
with the child and get in touch with them. If appropriate,
of the national online
and consent was obtained where required, this would
directory for those working
with children – ContactPoint contact
enable sharing of information and a meeting between
the child and the parent or carer and any practitioners
involved. Here they can explain to the child what
support they can offer.
As a result, the people working with the child have
a better understanding of the situation and together are
able to work out a plan to help make the child’s home
HE CORE activity of any secondary and school life easier. For example, they may get the
T
school is transforming the potential of child into a young carer’s group while arranging help at
every child into achievement. In doing home, allowing the child to spend time with friends and
so, it is vital that schools have a good get back on track at school.
understanding of a child’s situation Rather than ContactPoint being an administrative
and a full view of whether they are burden, it aims to fit into a school’s daily work as a
receiving any additional support from tool for practitioners. Where possible it will be updated
a social worker or any other practitioner. automatically from existing systems (national and
With this “joined-up” approach, potential issues can local) so that information only has to be entered once.
be dealt with before they become problems, helping In addition, through holding the details of every child’s
all children to achieve their full potential and drive up educational setting, ContactPoint will also help to
results at the same time. identify children missing education.
But identifying other professionals working with It is critical that the system is as secure as it can be
a child can be a challenge. Traditionally, it has meant and multiple levels of security are in place to ensure
teaching and non-teaching staff drawing on their that only authorised users have access and that it is only
knowledge of local services and “ringing round” to get used for authorised purposes.
input from a number of different professionals across In addition to organisations meeting the accreditation
the education sector, health services, local authority criteria, all users must have security clearance including
children’s services, or youth justice. an enhanced CRB check. After training, which is
Doing this wastes precious time and resources, and mandatory, they will receive a username, password,
can result in an incomplete picture of a child’s needs PIN, and security token. All users will have to state a
and a delay to appropriate interventions. However, if clear reason in order to gain access to a child’s record.
staff can find and liaise with other practitioners quickly, Authorised users will be able to access ContactPoint
they will be able to ensure, through a co-ordinated GP practice. Contact details for other services, such as ensuring they meet the required accreditation criteria, through a secure weblink, or through another authorised
approach, that teaching and learning and any additional health visitor and school nurse, will be added over time, discussions about the most appropriate means to user if they do not have access to a computer.
support, takes account of every child’s needs. although no case information, like doctor’s notes or provide the required data, and preparing users for As ContactPoint is implemented, headteachers,
To achieve this, the introduction of the online school attendance records, will be held. implementation. learning mentors, SENCOs, those with pastoral
directory for those working with young people – From mid-May a number of frontline practitioners, This has started with an analysis of the local schools’ responsibilities, and those leading on child safety,
ContactPoint – is well underway. This basic directory based in 18 local authorities in the North West and two workforce and their training needs. Schools will then should find it increasingly simple to liaise with other
will provide a quick way for an authorised user to voluntary sector partners, began using ContactPoint. agree with their local authority exactly who would need professionals working with pupils. SecEd
find out who else is working with the same child. These practitioners, who must all go through stringent to have access and when.
ContactPoint holds basic details (name, address, security checks and training, are being monitored in Understanding how ContactPoint may work on a • Terry Piggott is executive director, children’s services,
gender, date of birth, and an identifying number) for order to evaluate their experience of the system. day-to-day basis is key to seeing the benefits it will in Rochdale and a former secondary teacher.
every child in England up to their 18th birthday. Also Local authorities such as mine in Rochdale are provide. It is not uncommon for children who cause
held on the system are the name and contact details for working with schools and other organisations to help disruption and fall behind at school to have complex
Further information
each child’s parents or carers, their current school and them prepare for ContactPoint. This will include reasons for doing so. Consider, for example, a case www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/contactpoint
Notes and jottings Independent thinking
Rid us of the phallic ties! 240 pages of new powers
A FEW years ago I wrote an article for The National year 10 and 11 lessons during a designated week, as I RECENTLY attended a rather encouraging noted that the younger teachers who appeared before
Trust Magazine which involved interviewing some Ofsted inspectors do. conference organised for the independent sector. them seemed very uncertain at the suggestion that
special needs youngsters from a local school working Each inspecting group has leaders and daily We were addressed by a number of high profile they should teach what they liked in the way they
one day a week on a community project set up by the meetings during Insted. Department heads speakers, including politicians, and many offered liked, rather than following a prescribed regime.
Trust in Surrey woodland. At the time it struck me as are interviewed and offered advice if the young heart-warming opinions. One Labour MP pointed out However, as much as they expressed approval for
a very good idea to engage troubled teenagers with inspectors see fit. And an overall report is written that we in the independent sector were fortunate to what the independent sector achieves, none of the
the outdoors and with nature because many of them at the end. This year’s document recommended, for be “unencumbered” by the strictures of the national politicians would commit to positive support for it
don’t cope well in classrooms. And I wished there instance, that more use be made of virtual learning curriculum and praised our contributions to sport – they all believed that it was the state sector which
were more of this sort of thing. and that there be more consistency in the use of for all as well as our responsibility for substantial needed their attention and investment, albeit
So I was delighted to hear about Florence Brown revision aids, resources and homeworks. numbers of top class sportsmen and women in to make it more like the independent
Community Special School in Bristol whose Beauchamp staff say they find Insted a host of different disciplines. sector in a number of respects.
13 to 16-year-olds have built a timber- a really helpful and unthreatening way The excellence of our extensive extra- But a major reason for the
framed classroom at Ashton Hill Wood of celebrating good teaching. And curricular provision was extolled by success of the independent sector
– part of a Woodwise project being just think what it must do for the several speakers. Some enumerated the is its very independence. Alas, the
run by the Forest of Avon. inspecting students’ skills and self- very high percentages of high achieving encumbrances on the state sector
Trees for the building were felled assurance – a remarkable learning A level candidates in the sciences and (and in some cases the independent,
and milled on site and the timber was and development experience. But modern languages who emanate from too) are currently being increased
dragged by shire horses to minimise I’d be surprised if senior managers independent schools. almost exponentially.
the environmental damage. Clare hadn’t had to work quite hard Mention was also made of the fact As I write, the latest education
Walter of Oak Frame Buildings, who to talk round some of their more that independent schools have a higher Bill is with the House of Lords. It
has experience of community projects conservative colleagues. Could it proportion of minority ethnic pupils (23 per includes some 153 new government
for young people, taught and led the work in your school? cent) than the national average for schools, and powers over schools, colleges and
teenage builders. that many of the students from disadvantaged examinations, and is the longest
The shelter, which measures five metres To tie or not to tie...? Schools, it backgrounds who have gone to university, education Bill ever, running to 240
by four, is now available for individuals seems, like ties, at least according and indeed succeeded in their subsequent pages. How can such a gigantic
who want to stop and rest in the forest to the Schoolwear Association, but careers, have attended independent schools document possibly receive appropriate
or for schools to use as an outdoor they don’t care for the way pupils under bursary schemes. scrutiny and debate? This Bill dwarfs
classroom. And the group of young individualise their ties to annoy On a wider theme, a distinguished the 1944 Education Act and the
people who built it have learned useful teachers, and there are ‘elf ‘n safety’ Labour peer spoke passionately about legislation of the 1980s. It enables the
skills and now have an enormous sense concerns about wearing a potential our society’s “failed present” and the secretary of state even to specify which
of achievement. I bet they benefited noose knotted round your neck. Enter loss of trust, reminding us of the dangers textbooks pupils should study (does this
tremendously from forming good learner- that item beloved of stand-up comics: of making people into commodities and not sound more like a totalitarian state
teacher relationships with the adults they the clip-on tie. At least 10 schools a week treating everyone as “consumers” in than a democracy?).
were working with too. A splendid idea are adopting them apparently. every aspect of their lives. He gave vivid The state sector already has National
whichever way you look at it. Desmond Morris, in The Naked Ape examples (from both state and independent Strategies, the national curriculum, Ofsted,
(1967), argues that men’s ties are a modern schools) of how if you enable young people targets, league tables, ring-fenced funding, and
It takes a real confidence for teachers to set human substitute for the penis display of male to understand the need for change, they will complex bidding systems, it is surprising that as
their own students up as lesson observers and apes. Think about it. Not quite sure what Dr believe in the need for change, they will see the many as 153 further powers can actually have been
quality assessors (aka inspectors) but it can be done. Morris would make of putting girls and women into wider public benefit and will not act from narrow invented – but they have. The government seems set
And it’s a fine way of focusing on standards if you ties to ape (sorry) men. Mixed messages to say the self-interest. on yet more centralisation and more undermining of
handle it right, as Beauchamp College at Oadby in least. The debate moved on and politicians from most teachers’ professionalism. What was it that the Labour
Leicestershire evidently does. Either way, surely it would be better to scrap ties of the major parties agreed that we have moved too lord mentioned – loss of trust? Perhaps an election
The school already has a “good” Ofsted rating and opt for a crisp, turned back, open collar than to far in the direction of skills and competencies that are will save us from this Bill – but neglecting narrow
but wanted to go further, so it set up “Insted” fiddle about with a scruffy clipped-on phallic symbol not based on any specific knowledge. Skills cannot self-interest does not seem to be fashionable in politics
(someone deserves an award just for thinking up that – especially if you’re female? exist in a vacuum, they have to relate to something at the moment.
title). Insted involves small groups of 6th-formers and pupils should not be left to find out absolutely
who apply, are selected, and trained in objectivity. • Susan Elkin is a freelance education journalist and everything for themselves with little direction. A • Marion Gibbs is headmistress of the independent
Then they sit in, and give personal feedback, on former teacher. member of the Education Select Committee also James Allen’s Girls’ School in London.
SecEd • June 11 2009 7
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