A termly message from School-Home Support Chief Executive, Jaine Stannard
News article from January 18, 2022
As we head into a new year and a new term, our Chief Executive, Jaine Stannard, has prepared a message on what we’re working on, and the addition of Liverpool to the areas where we deliver our services.
The impact of Covid-19 continues for children and families
As we move into a New Year, the threat from the Omicron variant of Covid-19 continues to be felt. Although schools remain open, uncertainty about recovery continues and our practitioners continue to face challenges in supporting children and families, and tackling persistent absence.
Persistent absence remains a major issue requiring national attention, and we were pleased to see Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi MP has pledged to make school attendance his ‘top priority.’
What is School-Home Support doing to help?
We are expanding our work to ensure our practitioners can support more vulnerable children and help get them back to school ready to learn. Whatever it takes. A note on our work in both Blackpool and Liverpool.
We continue to work across all secondary and six primary schools in Blackpool to provide support to vulnerable children and families. Our team were delighted to welcome Paul Maynard, MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys, to visit one of our partner schools in November 2021. We are so pleased to have his support and I am due to meet with Paul later this month to brief him on our future plans for supporting families in Blackpool and how we can work together in the future. .
Over the past academic year, School-Home Support has worked with 294 individuals in Blackpool and provided 2,414 interventions of intensive support. For the individuals we worked with who had attendance below 80% at the start of our support, we have delivered an improvement of 11 extra days in school on average per individual.
We are also advancing our plans to provide services in Liverpool, an area we have identified as having significant need. We are working in partnership with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, local councils, and schools to provide School-Home Support Practitioners in the area. We will be initially working across a number of schools in South Sefton and North Liverpool over the rest of this academic year and hope to expand in the region over the coming years.
How can you support School-Home Support?
The demand and need for our services have never been greater. If you want to help us, you can donate today, and help us continue to be there for the vulnerable children and families we support on a daily basis.
Alternatively, contact us to find out more about how your support could ensure children are able to access education to enable them to achieve their potential.