Background

There are 19 Family Liaison Officers (FLOs) in Argyll and Bute Council. They work across 14 schools in the area. The roles are all funded by Pupil Equity Funding (PEF).

FLOs work with young people and their families to improve relationships with schools. This includes supporting attendance, school engagement and attainment. FLOs work flexibly to be responsive to the needs of individuals and families. They provide wellbeing support, targeted interventions and an outreach link with learners most at risk.

This case study will focus on the work and impact of one family liaison officer working in Hermitage Primary School. The school roll is 360, in an urban setting which also serves learners from military families. There is a mix of children from quintiles 1 to 5 of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). The free school meal entitlement of the school is 6%.

The FLO has been in post for just under two years and supports a substantial number of pupils across the school in a range of ways. This case study will focus on a small target group of learners with a high level of need and where the impact in successful outcomes is measurable and evident.

Attainment Scotland Funding

Pupil Equity Funding: over £50,000

Rationale

The school identified a small, targeted group of learners at significant risk of not achieving educational outcomes and who required intensive support from the FLO to achieve these.

A variety of data including attendance, health and wellbeing and attainment was gathered and interrogated. This highlighted issues around:

• school refusal
• low attendance
• trauma-related dysregulated behaviours
• low motivation
• disengagement
• attainment

The school was keen to offer bespoke support to this targeted group of learners and their families. The headteacher sought evidence from local sources around the employment and impact of FLOs. Evidence from another school in the cluster, which was part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge Schools Programme, was also used. This school had reported that the work of the FLO was resulting in positive outcomes for its most ‘at-risk’ pupils and families.

What the family liaison officer did

The FLO worked directly with targeted pupils and their families for just over one year, concentrating on building relationship and trust. One-to-one sessions took place in home settings. These included the use of mindfulness and the introduction of strategies to cope with anxiety, behaviour regulation and resilience-building.

Working alongside school staff, the FLO co-ordinated a school timetable to re-integrate pupils. This was implemented on a phased basis and gradually allowed learners to build up time in school. The FLO initially did one-to-one short sessions in the school building, then introduced class activity, building to time in class itself. All targeted pupils were accompanied by the FLO during this re-integration. The programme of re-integration took place from January to September 2023.

The FLO also:

• co-ordinates pick-ups of the targeted pupils from home in order to ensure school attendance
• signposts families to partner agencies for further support (e.g. counselling, social security, Ministry of Defence (MOD) families support worker, Active Schools)
• supports families with clothing and applications for free school meal and travel costs
• organises and accompanies pupils in wider community enrichment activities such as trips to local coffee shops, social meetups and football clubs
• arranges in-school therapeutic sessions for the targeted learners to address issues around anxiety and wellbeing

Additionally, they signpost families to partner agencies for further support including:

• counselling
• Social Security Scotland
• Forces Families Support
• Active Schools

Impact

All pupils (100%) in targeted group are now on a full school timetable.

Using the Glasgow Wellbeing and Motivation Profile, one pupil made gains across all four areas and reports they can now talk about their feelings with the FLO in school. They mentioned that: “If I’m feeling angry at home, I can write it in my journal and talk about it when I get to school”.

Another pupil noted that: “[The FLO] picks me up to bring me into school and she talks to my gran – sometimes we got to Costa for hot chocolate and a bacon roll – I really like this because I get lots of time to chat”.

A further pupil said that they felt supported and that: “I really like coming to school now because I get to do lots of nice things and all the teachers are really nice”.

Improvements in Attendance

There has been a significant increase in attendance for the targeted pupils. Attendance increased:

• from 59% in 2022-23 to 93% so far this session
• from 59% in terms 3 and 4 of 2022-23 to 85% in terms 1 and 2 of 2023-24

This is leading to increases in engagement and attainment.

Attainment

There has been an increase in reading attainment evidenced by an improvement in reading age scores. For one pupil there was an increase of 1.7 years in only five months. For another, there was an increase of 2.1 years in the same period.

One pupil felt positive around their learning and mentioned that: “I’m getting better at doing my work in P7 … I did a really long piece of writing on the Chromebook and I hadn’t done that before”.

Family engagement

Families have been receptive to the support offered by the FLO. There has been significant improvement in communication between families and school. Families reported they welcomed the support from the FLO around managing behaviour at home.

One parent said: “Our child was very aggressive at home and would bottle things up when they’d had a bad day at school. [The FLO] has worked with us to give them time, space and strategies to express how they are feeling and get support where needed. They’re much happier at home and at school and know how to get help”.

The work of the FLO has also been commended by other third sector agencies who also support the targeted pupils and families. Military families have welcomed the FLO’s understanding of the particular challenges faced by military deployment and transience. Other families have reported feeling very well supported and signposted to other services.