Children’s Action Team - Education Welfare

The Education Welfare Officers are part of a multi-disciplinary team in Early Help and are part of Children's Services within the new Brighter Futures For Children.
They work collaboratively with colleagues and partners to ensure that children and young people are accessing their education and other appropriate support.
They work to address any safeguarding concerns and support the Child Protection process.

Schools will be supported to ensure they meet statutory responsibilities for school attendance and that they have clear and consistent attendance policies and procedures.  EWOs will provide:

• Annual and Termly summary of attendance data and a breakdown of specific activities to support same
• Yearly Action Plan agreed with school and reviewed once a year
• Regular school visits/contact, as agreed, to discuss referrals, review cases and plan interventions
• Full range of casework support for identified individual pupils and their families
• Signposting and liaison with other colleagues and partners to support pupil/family, including Team Around The Child, Consultation, Child Protection and Core Group Meetings as appropriate
• Up to date and accurate record of interventions and feedback on progress
• Offer of support with initiatives to encourage and promote good attendance - eg Attendance Challenges, Assemblies, New Parent Evenings
• Offer of support for Ofsted inspections re attendance data/issues
• Offer of training for identified staff and governors regarding Attendance
• Improved home/school liaison for identified pupils and their families
• Improved learning outcomes and life opportunities, especially for those children who are underachieving due to poor attendance/engagement with education
• EWOs will prepare and administer all legal work including Fixed Penalty Notices for Unauthorised Leave of Absence During Term Time and prosecution of parents/carers through the Magistrates Court.
  

Please note that all schools (including academies) must inform the Local Authority of any pupil who fails to attend school regularly or has been absent without the school’s permission for a continuous period of 10 days or more.

Costings for the service are being calculated differently for the coming year.  These include a base rate calculated by number of children roll together with a cost per case based on number of open cases during the previous academic year. These are:-

Base Rate
300 and under on roll - LA - £ 800/Academy £1000
301-500 on roll - LA - £1000/Academy £1200
501 + on roll - LA £1200/Academy £1400

Cost per case            
LA School - £180
Academy - £200  

This is an annual service which will be invoiced 50% at the end of the summer term and 50% at the end of the autumn term. Any additional costs will be invoiced at the end of the financial year.