Aims

Telford & Wrekin Council has set out in its Community Plan two major Priorities. They are:

• Children and young people
• Alleviating poverty and improving prosperity

Telford and Wrekin's Education and Training Service has 5 Key Strategic priorities, clearly reflected in its work to date. They are:

• Raising standards of educational achievement
• Alleviating educational disadvantage
• A coherent approach to early years
• The development of more coherent opportunities post 16 (Lifelong Learning)
• Emphasising the place of schools at the heart of their communities

The BSP, along with a number of other key plans such as the Education Development Plan and the Early Years Development Plan, seeks to address the key strategic priorities of both the Council as a whole and the Education and Training Service as outlined above and will as act as an essential planning tool in ensuring that they are met. In particular the BSP will focus upon the key priorities relating to educational achievement, educational disadvantage and early years.

In accordance with the Council and LEA's desire to promote both social inclusion and inclusivity within its schools, the aim of the BSP is to help schools manage and meet the needs of pupils presenting with or likely to present behavioural difficulties. It therefore complements and supports priority area 6 of the Education Development Plan.

Objectives

The plan intends to:

• provide schools with information about all services available to help them to meet the needs of pupils with behavioural difficulties
• identify exemplars of good practice in working with pupils with behavioural difficulties and seek ways of developing these throughout the authority
• promote multi-agency and inter-agency working and identify mechanisms to achieve this effectively at local and county level
• facilitate the achievement of the proposed developments identified by service providers within the plan and act as an essential reference for Heads, Teachers, Support Staff and other professional staff

Scope

Telford & Wrekin's Behaviour Support Plan covers all phases of education from pre-school provision to Key Stage 4 and preparation for transfer to post-16 provision. The BSP focuses on meeting the needs of two main groups of pupils:

• pupils who have already demonstrated behavioural difficulties
• vulnerable pupils whose personal circumstances place them at greater risk of experiencing behavioural difficulties

Pupils who have already demonstrated behavioural difficulties includes:

• Excluded pupils (both permanent and fixed term)
• Pupils at risk of permanent exclusion
• Persistently disruptive pupils
• Pupils involved with bullying others
• Violent or abusive pupils
• Pupils repeatedly absent without permission
• School refusers and school phobics
• Pupils with challenging behaviour (including that associated with learning difficulties)
• Pupils on schools' SEN registers for behavioural difficulties
• Pupils with Statements of SEN for behavioural difficulties
• Pupils who have committed criminal offences.

Vulnerable groups of pupils might include the following:

• Pupils with emotional difficulties
• Pupils who are pregnant or who are parents
• Looked after children
• Children on the child protection register
• Pupils with family difficulties
• Pupils who figure disproportionately in exclusions figures, such as pupils with Statements of SEN other than those with identified behavioural difficulties, or pupils from ethnic groupings other than White European
• Pupils with significant trauma histories such as refugees
• Pupils with drug problems or those from drug using families
• Pupils with mental health problems
• Pupils who are or have been bullied

Monitoring Performance

The LEA will monitor the effectiveness of the BSP by considering the extent to which:

• There is a reduction in the number of pupils permanently excluded from schools.
• There is a reduction in unauthorised absences and a corresponding improvement in attendance. · There is a reduction in the number of pupils issued with Statements of SEN with identified emotional and behavioural difficulties.
• There is a reduction in the number of pupils referred for placement within specialist provision for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties.
• There are improvements in the achievements of
  (i) pupils with behavioural difficulties and
  (ii) children who are looked after by the local authority (measured by targets set for schools and the LEA as recorded in the Education Development Plan).

The information collected relating to progress towards the indicators identified above will form part of a dynamic planning process which will link with Priority 6 of the Education Development Plan and also identify any need for further guidance and professional development activities which schools may require.

The Behaviour Support Plan will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis.