Putting children and young people's views at the centre: Using the toolkit
The toolkit has four sections corresponding to the four questions. Together the sections bring together the four elements of data interrogation, information gathering, professional judgement, and planning. It may not be necessary to use all four sections. Sections 1 and 2 could take as little as 20 minutes to complete depending on access to SEEMIS records. Sections 3 and 4 could take an hour or more to complete and may require a number of separate conversations.
Each setting should decide who completes each section, and this does not necessarily have to be the same person. For example, in a large secondary school it may be appropriate for an administrator to complete Section 1 after a member of pupil support, or an assigned adult has completed Section 2 and decided that monitoring is required even at the very early stages of disengagement or a few absences. In a primary school it may be one member of staff completes all 4 sections.
The setting should also decide what sections need to be completed and the order they should be completed in. A setting may start with Section 1, as engagement or attendance has already been flagged as concern, and then progress through the sections accordingly. With knowledge of a specific learner, the setting may choose to complete Section 2 first as soon as disengagement begins to be noted in order to intervene at the very earliest stage. If the learners risk factors outweigh the resilience factors, they then should progress with completing Section 1, 3 and 4.
Sections 1 and 2 would be completed by staff and not with the learner or a parent/carer.
In Sections 3 and 4 the learner should lead the process. The questions should only be considered as a starting point for the discussion and not used in a prescriptive manner. For some learners, particularly very young learners, a parent or carer may need to support the process from the outset.
Section 3 should be completed by the ‘supportive and trusted adult’ after discussion with the learner. It may be necessary to follow-up with parent/carer to add detail to the learners responses. Practitioners should use their judgement whether the learner sees the form or whether they complete it after speaking to the learner. In Section 3 for each main factor the initial open question (s) can be used and then the responses added to the comments box. For more detail about certain factors the specific questions provided, or a version of these questions, can be used. The questions are designed to be prompts only. The language should be adapted to suit the age, stage and understanding of the learner. The process should not formulaic but should be conversational and natural. Care needs to be taken to ensure the questions do not become overly intrusive or start to overwhelm the learner. The ‘trusted adult’ may wish to add information that they know about the learner which may be relevant. This reduces the need for the learner to repeat information that may be sensitive or painful. As multiple factors are likely to be relevant an indication should be provided on whether the influencing factor is of high or low importance. If a factor doesn’t seem to be relevant leave the impact/comment box blank.
Section 4 should be completed in collaboration and with the agreement of the learner and potentially the parent/carer. Section 4 should be informed by the responses given in the previous sections. Reference should also be made to the staged intervention model to ensure that supports are considered on a sliding scale from the least intrusive universal support first and working up through the stages as required. For example, if individual factors are considered to be significant factors influencing disengagement or absence then using the Glasgow Motivation and Wellbeing Profile (GMWP) may be useful to confirm the initial questions in Section 3 or instead of these questions. The GMWP looks at the learner’s sense of affiliation, agency, and autonomy, i.e. does the learner feel they belong, do they feel they have any control over their learning experience, and can they express themselves as an individual, all of which contribute to their wellbeing.
This resource is based on information from multiple sources several of which are listed on the right hand side of this page.
Child of the North: An evidence-based plan for improving attendance school report 10_2024 N8 Research Partnership
Emotionally Based School Avoidance Guidance for Schools_Part 1 , Milton Keynes Council
Protective Factors: Building Resilience and Well-being, Counselling Psychology September 14, 2024
School Attendance and Mental Wellbeing, Anna Freud: Online resource highlighting risk factors
