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A report published today by Estyn evaluates the effectiveness and impact of the lead worker role in assisting at-risk young people through their transition into post-16 education, training, or employment.  

Where it works well, Estyn’s report highlights that this role can be a consistent and reliable presence, providing personalised support for the most at-risk young people to help them remain in, or to enter education, training, or employment. Estyn’s report however highlights that young people’s needs are increasingly complex and leaders and managers in local authorities faced challenges in meeting the scale of need and assessing the type of support required.  

Local collaboration to support the lead worker role varied, with the best cases involving strong representation from relevant agencies and leaders committing to information and data sharing. However, in many cases there were challenges due to anxieties and a lack of understanding about what personal information about young people’s needs and background could and could not be shared.  

Owen Evans, Chief Inspector says: “The lead worker role is intended to provide a consistent support service to at-risk young people as they enter post-16 education, training, or employment. We are aware that both referrals and the complexity of needs are increasing but young people need more continuity in the support they receive.

“Educational bodies must develop ways to measure the success of their work to prevent young people becoming disengaged from education, employment, or training (EET). Better data sharing about the circumstances of individual young people to facilitate stronger collaboration between all partners, including education and training providers, will enable young people to receive more relevant and timely support.

“We recommend that improvements be made to post-16 transition support by ensuring continuity of a young person’s lead worker until 31st January following a young person’s move into their post-16 destination, whether this is in school, at college, with a training provider, or employment.”  

Janine Bennett, author of the report, says: “In a young person’s life, the lead worker often serves as the only consistent and reliable presence. Our research shows that they played a pivotal role in providing young people with personalised support in relation to their current situation and accessing progression opportunities. Our report found however that whilst transition activities into post-16 colleges were typically well-structured, collaboration between post-16 providers and lead workers was often lacking once a young person enrolled, with many training providers being unaware of the lead worker role and its benefits.”

This report is based on evidence gathered through a series of visits to eleven local authorities, nine secondary schools, five colleges, five training providers, and the Careers Wales teams. The report brings together insights, examples of effective practice and several recommendations. 

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Starting a conversation

We know that it can be difficult for some learners to talk openly and honestly about their experiences at school. We want to help, so in secondary and all age inspections we’ve developed a new approach for listening to learners to encourage more meaningful conversations about their experiences in school. 

We adapted our methods as part of our work to gather feedback from learners about “their experiences of peer-on-peer sexual harassment among secondary school learners in Wales”.

What is our new approach?

Learners are at the heart of everything we do, so we:

  • Create a comfortable environment. We invite learners to bring a friend to the session, which encourages them to be open and share with us their experiences in school.
  • Reassure learners that what they talk about will be collected together and key themes will be shared anonymously. We won’t usually share learners’ comments with school staff or anyone else outside Estyn, unless we’re worried about their safety.

Activities

We use a series of activities to open our conversations, including: 

  • Learner voice jars – learners write their views anonymously on post-its, without needing to speak in front of their peers. This is particularly successful when we’re asking difficult questions like ‘Do learners behave well in your school?’ and ‘Do learners get bullied in your school?’. 
  • Stop, start, continue – learners write down what they think their school should stop doing, start doing and continue to do. This could include any aspect of the school, for example teaching, behaviour, and well-being.
  • I want my school to know – learners share information that they think is important for their school to know. It could be an open comment that may be positive or negative, or it could be about a specific inspection area (for example, aspects of the curriculum, safeguarding or pupil well-being).
  • Whiteboards – these can provide an open forum for learners. In “Emoji Madness” learners draw an emoji to explain how they feel about specific aspects of the school’s work. The learners’ responses often lead to more discussion around a topic.
     

    How is it making a difference?

    When learners feel comfortable, they’re more open about their experiences, which gives us a better insight into their views and concerns. Since piloting these approaches, we’ve noticed that a larger proportion of learners are more willing to share their feedback with us. Giving learners an independent voice helps us to drive real change in education in Wales and improvements in our work. 
     

     

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Estyn is responsible for checking standards and the quality of education in Wales. We inspect schools and give regular advice about education to the Welsh Government and other relevant organisations. 

We’re totally committed to ensuring that every child in Wales has the right to feel safe in school, to be looked after properly and to have a say in what matters to them. Bullying is an important issue for us, and one we regularly consider through our inspection activity or thematic reports and when we provide guidance for the Welsh Government. 

We’re proud to support the Anti-Bullying Alliance and to promote the 2022 Anti-Bullying Week’s ‘Reach Out’ campaign which takes place from 14 to 18 November.

We recently published a report on a specific type of bullying behaviour which happens between children and young people – peer-on-peer sexual harassment. The report, We don’t tell our teachers, looked at the incidence of peer-on-peer sexual harassment in the lives of secondary-aged young people and also reviewed the culture and processes that help protect and support young people in secondary schools in Wales. 

Many of the pupils we spoke to told us that they don’t ‘reach out’ about bullying and harassment. They said that this is because it happens so often that it has become ‘normal’. However, in our discussions with groups of pupils, we were astounded by their willingness to talk about these issues. We found that around half of secondary pupils say they have personal experience of some form of peer-on-peer sexual harassment, with twice as many girls saying they’ve experienced this compared with boys. Young people told us that peer-on-peer harassment happens more online and 
outside school than during the school day. However, in school, the most common types of harassment are negative comments about appearance, asking for and sending nude photographs and general negative attitudes towards girls and LGBTQ+ pupils.

For the first time ever, we also wrote a report on our findings specifically for children and young people. This is because so many young people had been honest and brave when talking to us about this important issue. In our report, We don’t tell our teachers, but schools need to know – a report for learners, there is a section which encourages and helps people to address these issues in their schools. Through these reports, we hope more young people can find the same courage and ‘reach out’ to help tackle issues of bullying.

We know that ‘reaching out’ is not as easy as it sounds. But we also know that we need to keep talking about bullying. Before the pandemic, we wrote an important blog about this: Why we need to keep talking about bullying. 

In other reports we have written, we have found that for pupils to feel safe to ‘reach out’ about bullying, they have to be satisfied with how their school deals with allegations of bullying (see Healthy and happy – school impact on pupils’ health and wellbeing). They need schools to not underestimate its prevalence, or to dismiss and ignore everyday incidences where pupils make negative or sexist remarks to each other. In our discussions with young people, we also find that young people would welcome more opportunities to discuss sexuality and healthy relationships and are asking for better provision for sex education. 

We always consider the important aspects of wellbeing, safety and bullying ahead of visiting a school or provider through our pre-inspection questionnaires which we invite all pupils, parents and carers, staff members and governors to complete. We also ask questions around these aspects in parent meetings and in our group discussions with pupils. Establishing how pupils, parents and carers feel about how well a school handles incidents of bullying influences our activity during the visit. This year, we have been trialling different approaches in our conversations with pupils to
ensure they feel comfortable talking to inspectors. These include inviting pupils to bring a friend along with them to meetings and using creative resources produced in association with leading Welsh academics and experts in this field.

Since our inspections resumed in March 2022, we have been taking a closer look at the culture of safeguarding within providers (see Inspecting a school’s safeguarding culture), including when learners are on-site, off-site, and learning online. We do not investigate individual cases, but we consider the quality and delivery of activities designed to promote well-being and prevent negative, harmful behaviour and attitudes. For example, by looking at how providers promote online safety, deliver personal social and relationships education and provide relevant professional learning for staff. We also talk to pupils and staff about processes to keep them safe and review school documents carefully to establish whether the provider’s safeguarding arrangements are promoting pupil safety and well-being effectively. 

We stand together with the Anti-Bullying Alliance and any other organisation that calls out and seeks to tackle bullying. 

To all young people we say: report any issues to school staff, a family member, or an adult you trust, and don’t be afraid to talk about it – whatever it may be. Reach out and sort out. 

For more information on the work of Estyn visit www.estyn.gov.wales 

Follow Estyn on Twitter https://twitter.com/EstynHMI

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In our role as inspectors, we have the privilege of visiting and engaging with education providers across the country. This allows us to develop a national perspective on what is happening in education and training in Wales and every year we reflect our findings in the Chief Inspector’s Annual Report.  

We know from our engagement with stakeholders and from the findings of ‘A Learning Inspectorate’, that the Annual Report is valued by stakeholders as a credible source of evidence on the strengths and areas for improvement in education and training. We are also aware that we could make these findings more accessible and useful to stakeholders.  

Below, we look at some of the ways we will improve how we share the information contained within our annual report. We want to deliver timely and relevant messages that offer value to the education sector and can drive improvements. 

Timely and relevant

To ensure that our messages are as up to date as possible, this year there will be two phases to the publication of our Annual Report findings.  

As a first phase, we will share our interim findings at an early stage in the autumn term. These will be brief summaries of the key messages from our engagement and inspection activity. They will provide stakeholders with a clear and timely picture of what is working well and what needs improving across each sector and across the wider education landscape in Wales.  

In January, as a second phase, we will publish the full Annual Report. This will build on the interim findings and be a more detailed report describing the ‘state of play’ of education and training in Wales and indicating ways forward.

Increasing engagement

Sharing our messages

Have your say

We are keen to find out what you think about these developments and to hear your ideas about other ways that

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Approaching the Curriculum for Wales

We’ve been fully involved throughout the development of the Curriculum for Wales. We have recently published our pilot inspection framework to explain how we will inspect schools during this transition phase and following September 2022.

Prior to the pandemic, we visited a number of secondary, special and all-age schools and, as a result, published our thematic report, Preparing for the Curriculum for Wales. It focuses on how well all-age secondary and special schools are preparing for the Curriculum for Wales.

The report highlights strengths and barriers that we identified during this engagement with schools and provides case studies and cameos that highlight how different schools are approaching this reform.

In the report, we highlighted the importance of establishing a vision for teaching and learning, and the need to ensure that teaching remains high quality. We spoke about that vision being in the context of pupils and school community, and the importance of that vision being fully understood and shared by everyone. We also highlighted the importance of improving teaching as an important enabler to curriculum reform. 

In September, we hosted the second in a series of webinars which focused on these two aspects. This webinar considered approaches that schools have taken to develop their vision for the curriculum and to improve teaching and learning. We were joined by the leaders of four schools from across Wales that were willing to share their experiences as they address these specific aspects of their journey.
 

The aim of sharing these findings and experiences is to help school leaders and teachers to take this opportunity to reflect on their approaches as they develop their Curriculum for Wales.

For further insight on our Preparing for the Curriculum for Wales thematic report, see our extended blog on the Welsh Government’s Curriculum for Wales blog.

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During our recent youth work services stakeholder forum, we were delighted to welcome a broad range of organisations from the statutory and voluntary sectors to discuss our future inspection plans. 

We currently inspect youth support services as part of our local government education services (LGES) inspections. These inspections cover the local authority youth service and the partnership arrangements led by the local authority for youth support services (YSS).

National policy and the drive to improve services and be more cost-effective means that local authorities are increasingly working in partnership and integrating services. There are also specific references to youth support services in the LGES inspection framework, which cover standards and progress overall, support for vulnerable learners; other education support services and safeguarding. The inspection guidance therefore allows inspectors to scrutinise a broad range of activities, including those undertaken by voluntary bodies, where appropriate.

The aim of the stakeholder forum was part of our extensive ongoing engagement work with the sector. We want to establish potential options for inspecting youth work in a way that reflects the recent and probable future developments within the sector. The valuable feedback included the following points:

  • Our approach to inspection needs to reflect the different ways that youth work is organised and delivered across local authorities
  • Partnership working needs to be evaluated and the important role of the voluntary sector should be highlighted clearly
  • Inspection should reflect the nature of the provision and include virtual and physical session observations, where possible, as well as the usual range of inspection activity
  • Inspection activity should include open-access youth work as well as the targeted youth work activities
  • Inspections should be outcome focussed but not overly driven by data given that outcomes in youth work are often less easily measurable than in school/college settings
  • Inspection should be young person focused
  • As in other sectors, inspection teams focusing on youth work should include peer inspectors 

In the forum we also discussed how important the links between the new curriculum and youth work principles are (as highlighted in the previous blog) and how to capture the longitudinal impact of youth work on young people. 

Stakeholders expressed different views regarding whether inspection within the LGES framework or standalone youth work inspections were the way forward. However, most welcomed the plan for greater emphasis on inspecting youth work in the future.  

We will continue to engage with the sector by attending key meetings and forums, and meeting with other bodies like the Council for Wales of Voluntary Youth Services (CWVYS) to evaluate the full range of views and opinions within the sector. 

These activities will influence our inspection approach and activity within the current LGES inspection framework during the upcoming academic year. We will also continue to discuss and consider whether there’s a rationale and need for a sector-specific youth work inspection framework and will ensure that the sector is involved fully in any such developments. 
 

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Leaders demonstrate a strong moral purpose

In all the schools and colleges we visited, leaders demonstrate a clear moral purpose towards promoting inclusion and celebrating diversity. They recognise its importance and see its relevance to young people. 

For example, in the primary schools we visited, leaders ensure that pupils are taught about LGBT issues in a developmentally appropriate way that helps them understand what they see in the their family, their community and the media.

Leaders act as positive role models in their use of language and challenge staff to consider how their language may reinforce prejudice, such as stereotyping related to sex, gender or sexual orientation.

Pupil voice plays a key role

In the effective providers we visited, there is a clear role for learners in establishing and promoting the school or college’s approach to supporting inclusion and exploring diversity. 

For example, all the secondary schools we visit

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School leaders rarely talk of building pupils’ resilience as a main aim or objective. Resilience is often strengthened as a result of other work carried out to support pupils. Schools are becoming more and more aware of issues that affect their pupils and are becoming better at identifying those who need help with their wellbeing and mental health. 

A number of cases of good practice in this area are highlighted in some of our recent thematic reports such as  Knowing your children – supporting children with adverse childhood experiences Healthy and Happy and Effective school support for disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils 

In July we published Learner Resilience – building resilience in primary schools, secondary schools and pupil referral units. 

This report highlighted that factors that support resilience are generally relate to: 

  • self-esteem and self-confidence 
  • belief in our own ability to cope 
  • a range of approaches to help us cope 
  • good relationships with others who we can rely upon to help 

Emotional wellbeing and mental health

The best schools understand that pupils’ emotional wellbeing is the responsibility of all staff and that every interaction and engagement with pupils has an impact on their sense of worth.  In these schools, staff know that all their words, actions and attitudes influence a pupil’s self-esteem, self-confidence and ultimately, their wellbeing.  
It’s important that pupils have regular opportunities to express their emotions and share their feelings at school. Successful schools have clear approaches for listening to and addressing pupils’ concerns quickly. They are alert to how pupils are feeling during the day, and work with pupils to identify particular staff members to whom they can turn if needed. 

Nurturing approaches can be very successful in helping to build resilience in pupils who are struggling to cope with their current circumstances.  Trained staff can help pupils develop their personal and social ski

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Recent studies by Public Health Wales found that almost a half of the adults in Wales experienced adversity at least once in childhood with 14% suffering four or more times while growing up. These types of experiences have a highly negative impact on child health, including mental health, social engagement, behaviour and school attendance.

Supporting children and young people who live in difficult situations is an important aspect of a school’s work. Our January 2020 report, ‘Knowing your children – supporting pupils with adverse childhood experiences’, explored the impact schools have on the wellbeing of pupils with adverse childhood experiences (ACES). The Public Health Wales research tells us that influences such as friends, trusted adults, the community and school all help children to build resilience and deal better with severe hardships.

Why schools?

School staff are the professionals who spend most time with children and young people. Social workers and health workers may work with them but do not see them every day, unlike teachers and support staff. This means that schools are best placed to identify difficulties and support and influence children and young people.

We find that the best schools know their pupils and families well and work productively to support them in a non-judgmental way. They use their experience and findings from research and training to support children and young people and help them get the most out of school.

What do the best schools do to support their children and build up their resilience?

These are some of the beneficial activities going on in primary and secondary schools:

  • Nurturing sessions to allow time for pupils to eat, socialise and play games together before and after school and during breaks.
  • Purposeful and beneficial activities which use creative subjects like music and art to promote positive mental health.
  • After-school clubs which engage children and young people, enable them to work productively with trusted adults and peers and build up their resilience. These include cookery clubs, gardening clubs, ICT clubs and sport clubs.
  • A positive behaviour policy where staff use language that engages pupils and supports their emotions, and favours restorative approaches rather than punishment to change poor behaviour.
  • Safe and quiet areas or rooms where pupils, particularly older ones, can relax or have some personal reflection time when they feel overwhelmed or anxious.
  • Programmes of support for targeted groups of children run by trained staff such as anger management, emotion coaching, play therapy and mindfulness.
  • Parental engagement classes and groups to support vulnerable adults. Activities include cookery and literacy lessons, parenting classes and running clothing sales and food banks.
  • Regular meetings with partners from social services and health to ensure that everyone works together for the benefit of families who need support.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more difficult for schools to provide their usual levels of support for vulnerable pupils.  Now pupils are returning to school, we need to make sure that they are protected, and that schools provide an environment where pupils feel safe and supported. The NSPCC has lots of useful advice and resources for children and young people, as well as their parents and carers.

How can schools and public services provide better support?

Our ‘Knowing your children’ report features many interesting case studies of good practice in primary and secondary schools across Wales as well as examples of beneficial multi-agency work. Schools should first ensure that they place a strong focus on building and maintaining trusting, positive and open relationships with families. Finally, schools should provide calm, nurturing and supportive spaces for children and young people to relax and feel safe when they feel stressed, worried or sad.

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No one could foresee the changes to education that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought. As settings had to close their doors to the majority of their learners in March, staff and leaders across Wales rose to the challenge of continuing to support learner wellbeing and progress in different ways. 

Keeping everyone informed
In a changing landscape regular, clear communication with learners, families and staff has been vital. Leaders provide staff with regular updates, staff meetings are held online and families are kept informed through emails.  

Leaders and staff are working closely with families to establish clear expectations. Knowing your learners, families and communities well has proved key to successful engagement with distance learning.  

Parents have appreciated where schools have tried to maintain a sense of community through online assemblies and continuing to celebrate achievements for example. This has often improved engagement, particularly for younger learners.

As the length of time learners have been out of schools, settings and other providers, increased, communication has evolved to include learner and parental feedback on the quality of the provision and adaptations that may be required.

Wellbeing support
Schools, settings and other providers have maintained their support networks through a variety of means including telephone calls, text messages, emails and home visits from wellbeing officers. 

There have been deliveries of food parcels and the loan of digital equipment to allow learning to continue. In a few cases, online wellbeing activities including relaxation and self-reflection have been created to promote staff and learner wellbeing.

There are specific challenges in relation to distance learning for vulnerable learners. In the most effective practice, learners with additional learning needs have been provided with additional guidance and support and adapted support plans. 

One special school organised minibus visits around the county twice weekly. This allowed physical resources to be delivered to families, for example mobility aids and ICT equipment. This was very popular with staff and families and allows valuable face to face interaction at a safe distance. 

At one PRU, the few pupils in receipt of PRU-based counselling continued their individual sessions by either email, text or phone. All of the counsellors completed a module to be able to offer phone counselling.

Innovative digital delivery
Staff have provided learning activities using innovative approaches delivered through a variety of online platforms. 

Staff from a specialist resource base within a mainstream secondary school have provided its pupils with a weekly timetable of interactive activities on appropriate live streaming platforms. These engaging activities include wildlife watching, Makaton sign of the week, dance and fitness activities, craft sessions, storytelling, singing sessions and show and tell activities. 

At one PRU, staff provided pupils with planned learning activities such as relaxation techniques, social stories, literacy and numeracy, as well as class assemblies and the opportunity to follow a commercial programme to promote their social, emotional and behavioural wellbeing. Visual timetables, lesson objectives and success criteria were provided to try to maintain a similar routine to the usual lesson format.

Supporting Welsh-medium education
In many Welsh-medium schools, most pupils come from homes where Welsh is not spoken. 

Staff have tried to overcome this by providing pupils with learning activities that encourage them to use their Welsh as naturally as possible. The focus is on reading, understanding and, most importantly, speaking Welsh. Opportunities for pupils to develop presentations and create their own versions of Welsh songs and rhymes have been particularly successful in primary schools. 

Supporting professional learning
In a few providers, comprehensive programmes of professional learning activities have been rolled out to all staff with the focus on blended learning training.  

The providers have supported this training by using a set of guiding principles for the planning and delivery of teaching, training and assessment.  Staff are being trained and updated in the use of digital technology and online platforms.  

Planning for the future
Learners and staff across all sectors have been surveyed to obtain feedback on their experiences during lockdown and to help inform planning for future learning delivery. 

The key messages from learners are that they are missing their friends, teachers and the school environment. While many say that they are coping well with remote delivery, a minority admit that they sometimes find it difficult to maintain motivation and sustain engagement with remote learning activities.

Leaders have produced comprehensive recovery plans. These include logistical aspects and curriculum arrangements, and set out the responsibilities of members of staff and communication strategies for parents.

As we start the new term and the new ‘normal’ we will all have to continue to be both flexible and creative in how we adapt to meet the needs of learners across Wales.

Read more examples of how education and training providers are supporting wellbeing and learning during COVID-19.