Children with health needs who cannot attend school

(Home Tuition)

Policy details

• Date created -   21/11/2023
• Date reviewed - 21/11/2023
• Date approved -30/11/2023
• Next review date - November 2024
• Policy owner - Charlotte Millea

Contents

1. Home Tuition at Co-op Academy Delius
2. Safeguarding Procedures
3. Lone working off site

4. Requirements for Home Tuition
5. Additional support offered to pupils who are too poorly to attend school
6. Organisation of Home Tuition Provision
7. Liaison with parents/carers
8. Continuing progress
9. Working with multiple agencies and review of needs
10.  Future Planning

Home Tuition at Co-op Academy Delius

At Co-op Academy Delius we ensure that pupils who are unable to attend school due to health- related issues continue receive a high quality educational offer which takes into account:

• Pupil and families wishes
• The dignity of the child
• A personalised approach to sessions which prioritise pupils needs where possible according to their EHCP
• The best way to communicate with individual families to support their child back into school, if and when the time is appropriate
• The views, input and expertise of other professionals

Safeguarding Procedures

Home tuition at Co-op Academy Delius is a continuation of our Safeguarding Procedures within school. Children who are not in attendance at school are tracked upon the safeguarding spreadsheet and their individual circumstances are discussed within the safeguarding supervision meetings. To ensure that our pupils and families are safe when they are not in school, home tuition visits are instigated, if a child has not been seen by a member of staff within 5 school days. In line with policy for all staff at Co-op Academy Delius, the home tuition team partake in a rigorous selection and recruitment process, including DBS checks.

No staff member will be permitted to work alone with a child until they have undergone a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

When children are visited, they must be physically seen by the home tutor. Their appearance and general wellbeing will be recorded by the person conducting the visit. All visits are recorded on CPOMS using the category of ‘home tuition’. During home tuition visits, safeguarding concerns must be reported to the designated person in school responsible for Safeguarding. These concerns should be reported without delay and can be done by telephone when necessary. The Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and a team of Designated Safeguarding Deputies can be identified via the flowchart which is visible around school and on the website. In some cases, the DSL and Deputies, may seek to see if other professionals have physically seen the child. This may be considered if a child is very ill and the family have had a lot of visitors. When this decision is made, the professionals’ observations are recorded on CPOMS.

Lone working off site

The risk assessment (see Appendix 1) details the factors to consider when completing a home visit. Lone working is appropriate for families who are known to school. However, for pupils not yet known to school or those where concerns are known about, it is advised to visit in pairs. 

If at any point before or during the visit staff feel unsafe they have the right to withdraw from the situation and report concerns to SLT and safeguarding team

If a member of staff leaves school as part of lone work, they should give their estimated time of return and their contact number to SLT, via the home tuition lone working log (appendix 2). The staff member should report back to the SLT member when they return, or call and speak to the SLT member if they are going directly home.

Requirements for Home Tuition

The pupils at Co-op Academy Delius who have a need for home tuition fall into these categories:

• Planned surgery
• Long term absence
• Chronic conditions which cause regular absence for a few days at a time

All children who are absent for 5 days are visited by the safeguarding team. If the child’s absence is going to extend beyond the 5 days, this will instigate home tuition.

We will provide opportunities for children and parents to express their preferences for activities. It is crucial to acknowledge that some of the children who are in receipt of home tuition are palliative children which sometimes means that their home tuition offer may focus more upon stimulation and comfort rather than meeting their previous educational targets. The home tuition team provides a holistic family-centred approach in these circumstances. Home tuition team members report to Charlotte Millea (DHT) and Richard Meredith (DSL) who will support the facilitation of referrals to other professionals where required.

Additional support offered to pupils who are too poorly to attend school

• Termly updates to the Personalised Learning Goals, including input from parents
• Opportunities for google classroom sessions
• Learning Packs with resources ready for families to use
• Loaning of equipment to provide opportunities to meet EHCP outcomes and provision needs
• Transition visits (for pupils) and close work with family may be undertaken

Organisation of Home Tuition Provision

The intervention and home tuition teams, alongside Charlotte Millea and Richard Meredith will:  

• develop a timetable for the Home Tuition/Intervention Team in order to be able to provide this provision
• allocate a member of the home tuition team to contact individual families
• create a plan to deliver the pupils’ PLGs taking into account family preferences
• If absence is anticipated, for example planned surgery, a meeting will be held with  school nursing team to establish the plan for Home Tuition and the return to school

Liaison with parents/carers

• The Home Tuition Team will establish, where possible, the amount of time a pupil might be off and identify ways in which the school can support the family
• The Home Tuition Team will provide parents with any updated information about school
• Encouragement to contact peers through visits, cards, emails and other means deemed helpful

All relevant letters will be shared with families via class Dojo and families will still receive text messages with important whole school information.

Continuing progress

• Teachers will provide the Home Tuition Team with access to the child’s PLG. If appropriate, these can be worked upon in the home setting and captured on Evidence For Learning
• The Home Tuition team will liaise with families to see if there are any new interests or developments that they may have noticed in their child
• The school and family will work closely to ensure that children can return to school as soon as they are fit to do so and legislation allows

Working with multiple agencies and review of needs

To ensure consistency of information, the individuals working with the children who are receiving home tuition, must record notes after every session via the Safeguarding spreadsheet. This will highlight if any support or referrals from other agencies are required. The multi-agency teams include, school nursing team, physiotherapist and occupational therapist and Parent Involvement Officer. Pupils who are on long term part time timetables, will have this agreed with their paediatric consultant.

Future Planning

In line with the ADP, the Senior Leadership team will continue to be proactive in the approach to  supporting pupil attendance. This is a school priority and clear actions and systems will continue to be developed for all pupils who are unable to attend school, for whatever reason.

Appendix 1 Home Tuition Risk Assessment Co-op Academy Delius - Google Docs

Appendix 2 Home Tuition Lone Working log