Mr A Blackie
Director of Education and
Community Services
East Lothian Council
Council Buildings
HADDINGTON
EH41 3HA
HM Inspectorate of Education
Eastern Division
Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
Edinburgh EH11 3XD
Telephone: 0131-244 8142
Fax: 0131-244 8424
hmi.eastern@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/hmie
Our ref:
GNR/JCC
19 November 2002
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Dear Mr Blackie
FOLLOW-UP TO THE INSPECTION OF STANDARDS AND QUALITY IN EAST LOTHIAN
PUPIL SUPPORT UNIT (FORMERLY THE EAST LOTHIAN LEAVERS’ UNIT)
EAST LOTHIAN COUNCIL
The report on East Lothian Leavers’ Unit was published in June 2000. HM Inspectors visited the Leavers’
Unit in May 2001 to evaluate progress and published a report on their findings in October 2001. In order to
satisfy themselves about the further work which required to be done, HM Inspectors conducted further visits
to the Pupil Support Unit in December 2001 and in June 2002.
The education authority and staff from ELPSU had made some further progress in addressing the main points
for action in the report. A new structure had been agreed very recently by the Council to address the needs of
disaffected young people more effectively. The service to schools and young people was still at a stage of
transition and would require time to take effect. Whilst there was evidence of good practice in several
secondary schools in dealing with young people who exhibit challenging behaviour, there was inconsistency
in practice across all six secondary schools in the Council. More needed to be done to ensure that pupils
consistently had access to a meaningful curriculum and were suitably prepared for life after school. In the
light of these findings, HM Inspectors will revisit the provision being made for disaffected young people in
April 2003.
I attach an overall evaluation and brief account of the response made by the Pupil Support Unit and the
education authority to the main points for action in the report.
I am sending a copy of this letter to parents of children currently receiving support from the unit and the other
recipients of the inspection report.
Yours sincerely
Dr Gill Robinson
HM Chief Inspector
Eastern Division
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education
Headquarters • Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD • Telephone 0131 244 0650 • Fax 0131 244 7124 • www.scotland.gov.uk/hmie
HM Inspectorate of Education
Follow-up to the Inspection of Standards and Quality in
East Lothian Pupil Support Unit (formerly the East
Lothian Leavers’ Unit)
East Lothian Council
Background comments
The Department of Education and Community Services had used the findings of the
previous follow-up inspection to review provision for pupils with social, emotional and
behavioural difficulties. A decision was made to disband the East Lothian Leavers’ Unit
and provide additional support to schools to retain pupils on the school roll. A new 14+
Behaviour Support Service, delivered by staff within the East Lothian Pupil Support Unit
(ELPSU), had recently been formed. Secondary schools, with support from outside
agencies and ELPSU staff now sought to provide an appropriate curriculum for young
people with challenging behaviour. The stated policy of the Council was that young people
with challenging behaviour were now the responsibility of their secondary school.
Overall evaluation
Within the six secondary schools, staff had weekly meetings with Education Welfare
Officers to discuss pupils’ attendance. Where appropriate, Guidance staff linked with staff
from colleges and from ELPSU to discuss the progress of those young people who were
attending college. There was evidence of some innovative ways of supporting young people
but there were still serious gaps in provision. In particular, procedures for knowing the
whereabouts of each young person who had been referred to the unit still required to be
improved. Further steps needed to be taken to ensure that the whereabouts of each pupil
were known. Matters of safety and security of pupils needed to be addressed as a matter of
urgency.
The remits and roles of key staff had been reviewed as part of a revised management
structure for the service. A multi-agency Discipline Task Group, chaired by the Director,
was reviewing best practice in schools to deal more effectively with pupils exhibiting
challenging behaviour. The Group had produced a detailed Action Plan and was publishing
a catalogue to disseminate good practice. The authority had ensured that schools were
provided with additional resources to work with disaffected pupils. A range of external
agencies and services supported this work. However, the valuable resources and skills of
the authority’s psychological services were often called into play too late to support pupils.
Secondary staff were not intervening sufficiently early to work with and support pupils in
addressing their needs. Some secondary schools were permanently excluding pupils and this
led to young people without educational provision or a named school.
Commendably, schools had been provided with additional levels of staffing to address the
needs of their most challenging pupils. They were beginning to develop more effective
procedures for staged intervention and response for their more difficult pupils. A range of
appropriate staff development activities including effective use of Circle Time and
solution-focused strategies had been offered by the Council. The range of support now
required to be better co-ordinated within schools or between services and agencies. Further
work was required to improve the processes whereby pupils’ significant social, emotional,
behavioural and learning difficulties were met. In a few schools, the considerable resources
invested by the Council were not being used effectively.
2
The authority had worked with secondary headteachers and ELPSU staff to improve the
curriculum for the young people. Pupils were encouraged to continue with Standard Grade
courses, particularly in English and mathematics. An individualised package which often
included extended work experience and/or college placements sought to enable pupils to be
better prepared for life beyond school. Despite efforts on the part of staff, the young people
still experienced a fragmented curriculum, a lack of focused learning support and a limited
package of educational provision. They were insufficiently prepared to sustain college or
work placements and they did not have access to regular counselling and specialist support.
Whilst several secondary schools were making good progress in taking a greater degree of
responsibility for ensuring effective provision for disaffected pupils this remained
inconsistent across the authority.
Good steps had been taken to improve the system for dealing with referrals to ELPSU and
for dealing more promptly with reviews of breakdown in pupils’ placements. However, the
previous six-weekly reviews of progress of each individual pupil had now ceased. Pupils
did not get sufficiently frequent feedback on what they needed to do to improve behaviour
and attainment. There were still gaps in monitoring attendance.
The Head of Education had given a strong lead in reviewing provision for disaffected young
people through the development of a 14+ Service. There were still gaps in staffing and key
posts had yet to be filled.
Overall, although steps had been taken to improve provision through a re-structuring of the
service, at the time of the follow-up, the service was not yet fully operational and the
support for these young people was not yet sufficiently effective.
The education authority and staff from ELPSU had made some further progress in
addressing the main points for action in the report. A new structure had been agreed
very recently by the Council to address the needs of disaffected young people more
effectively. The service to schools and young people was still at a stage of transition
and would require time to take effect. Whilst there was evidence of good practice in
several secondary schools in dealing with young people who exhibit challenging
behaviour, there was inconsistency in practice across all six secondary schools in the
Council. More needed to be done to ensure that pupils consistently had access to a
meaningful curriculum and were suitably prepared for life after school. In the light of
these findings, HM Inspectors will revisit the provision being made for disaffected
young people in April 2003.