August 2023 Update

Welcome to August 2023 NEET News which gives you latest updates about supporting our young people who are not in education, employment or training.

Hello!

I hope you are all enjoying some well-earned leave over the summer to spend time with friends and family - despite whatever the British weather might throw at us!

You will see that work is ongoing with all our young people, whether they have just left school or are post 16 and exploring new options.  As is often the case at this time of year, we are seeing a rise in the number of young people who are NEET - we continue to welcome partnership working to support yp to participate and to overcome any barriers to this they may face.

Please also note some changes in practice around our students with Education, Health & Care Plans.  Lots of work has taken place over recent months to develop and refine our processes, in collaboration with our SEND colleagues across partnership organisations, as well as our Telford and Wrekin SEND team.  Many thanks to everyone who has been involved!

As always, we are looking ahead and planning now for the new academic year in our schools, both for our traded work as well as for our Year 11 risk of NEET (RONI).  To enable us to do the best job we can for your students, don't forget to invite your FutureFocus Adviser to relevant meetings, so we understand the background and circumstances of each young person.  This would include child protection meetings, PEPs, core group and professional meetings, to name a few!  It is critical we understand the whole picture for the young person, to ensure our advice, guidance and support is appropriate, tailored and supportive and to avoid them having to re-tell their story.  If you have any queries regarding this, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me at the email address below.

Finally, their has been a slight change to our face-to-face delivery at Southwater 1.  We are still there, but are now located on the Ground Floor.  Our opening hours are still Monday to Friday, 10 - 5, with phone lines answered from 9am.  Please encourage young people to access us - we are also happy to see any family/carers or supporting professionals with them too!

I hope you are happy to continue receiving this update. We are keen to hear your preferences around frequency, so please let us know.  If you wish to be removed from the distribution list or want any of your teams adding please drop me a line at tara.foran@telford.gov.uk

Best wishes 

Tara Foran

Future Focus Careers Team leader

Latest Data

As you are aware, Local Authorities have a statutory duty to track young people up to the end of Year 13 and support them to engage in education, training or employment with training.

The performance for this tracking is collated for all LA's by DfE and is published each month. The latest published data is for June 2023 and is detailed below.

We are showing some evidence of increased numbers of NEET young people and we are working harder to find alternative provision for the amount of joiners that we have had referred to our service each month. In the month of July 2023 we had 14 NEET joiners and 5 leavers. Young people are allocated a FutureFocus Careers Adviser to consider the local offer and refer to programmes that may be suitable. We are an impartial service offering whatever support is necessary to secure a positive outcome.

Here is our current published position for NEET and Not Known figures for June 2023

This is a table of starters and leavers over the last 12 months and shows a comparison to the previous 2 years.

Juniper’s offer to young people.

If you would like to send us your flyers and information to include in future newsletters please let me know via email. Sally.robinson@telford.gov.uk

SEN News

The move to Careers and Transition Action Plans 

“Preparing for Adulthood (PfA) is about enabling and empowering, children, young people and adults with SEND as well as their families and or carers to prepare for a seamless transition from children’s through to adulthood.”

In line with recommendations from Preparing for Adulthood and OFSTED, from September FutureFocus will be moving from Careers and Transition Reports to Careers and Transition Action plans for those young people with EHC plans. FutureFocus Advisers will be working with young people in years 9, 10 and 11, their families/carers and key professionals in schools to support them.  They will be capturing their views and aspirations regarding careers and post 16 options, along with exploration that they have completed and careers guidance they have accessed. To do this, Advisers will complete 1:1’s with young people or where appropriate, shadow them within their school setting. This information will then be used to develop an action plan for the next 12 months, identifying key areas to explore further, steps to take that would benefit them and then support for their transition to the next stage. For these to be completed it is very important that your allocated FutureFocus Adviser receives invites to key meetings and EHC reviews.  Once finalised with the young person and family/carer, these are then forwarded to the young person’s SEND team and then attached to their EHC plan as an Appendix.

If you require any further information regarding this, please speak to your allocated FutureFocus Adviser or contact Karen Carter at FutureFocus on 01952 388988 or Karen.carter@telford.gov.uk

Young people with Education, Health and Care Plans

Please remember if you have a young person with an Education, Health and Care Plan who might be looking to progress to a different setting, consultation will need to take place, along with a final EHCP review to ensure the information is accurate and up to date to support their transition.

School Update

Our Advisers have been very busy during the summer ensuring all Year 11 leavers have an offer of learning for September. We have been working closely with our local providers, arranging visits and supporting young people to attend their interviews. School will receive an update regarding destinations in the coming months via the school activity survey.

Advisers have also been creating their priority lists ready for the new academic year, building on the work already started and agreed with school before the summer holidays. Thank you to all those key staff involved for your time and expertise on these priority students!  Don't forget to ensure you invite you FF Adviser to all future key meetings about these students, including child protection, core groups, etc.  

There will be support as always for all Year 11's receiving their GCSE results.  Please encourage anyone with any queries to contact us.  Phone lines are open Monday to Friday from 9am - 5pm, with drop-in for face-to-face support available at Southwater 1 at the Town Centre.

Careers packs will be distributed to all year 11 students in our traded schools in September. These are a fantastic resource to enable your students to consider their Post 16 options and encourage attendance at open events to help inform decisions about their next steps.