Supporting your child's journey in education
About HEALS
HEALS is an education support service. We are here to identify children that are experiencing lost learning (through illness, absence, exclusion, suspension or otherwise), at the earliest opportunity. We work in partnership with schools and families to ensure every child receives the right support at the right time.
With early intervention and a commitment to including all children in a school that can meet their needs, together we will ensure that all children in Hackney receive a high quality education, alongside their peers.
HEALS has oversight for ensuring children in Hackney are able to access a suitable, full time education that allows them to achieve and thrive.
Every child deserves to be meaningfully included in their school, to have friends and to thrive, transitioning to adulthood with options and an exciting future ahead of them.
Our HEALS policy describes all of our functions, and also links to distinct policies around statutory duties. This will be available shortly.
You can read further information about suspensions and exclusions, our approach to improving attendance, and information on elective home education and children missing education.
Information for parents and carers
As a parent/carer of a child that is experiencing lost learning, we want to help you, your child and your child’s school to understand what is happening from your child’s perspective. Reasons for lost learning include:i
- ill health (including mental health concerns such as anxiety or depression)
- spending periods outside of the classroom
- experiencing regular suspensions or having been permanently excluded from school
All children that live in Hackney or attend a Hackney school are eligible for our support. If your child has Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND) as well, they can still access our support if they would benefit from it. We will make sure that any HEALS support is planned alongside SEND advice, and guided by you, your child and your child’s school.
Getting support
Your first step is to speak to your child’s school if you have concerns, they can contact us either via their allocated HEALS Outreach and Engagement (O&E) Officer (every Hackney school has one) or on heals@hackney.gov.uk.
We will look to understand the situation, and we won’t create a plan until we have spoken to everyone involved - and of course, you and your child will be top of that list.
Creating a plan
We will then all work together to create a purposeful plan for your child, to help to create the inclusive environment they need, in order to be able to access their learning and thrive in school.
This might include support in school, support for your child delivered in the community (in a youth club, at home or in a public place like a library), and it might be delivered by teachers in school, your school’s O&E officer or by another local service that is better placed to do that work.
Plans will be reviewed regularly to ensure that your child is experiencing a positive change. If they are not, then we can adjust the support and try again. If necessary, and because we are committed to bringing the right support to your child and not the other way around, we will undertake a multi agency approach alongside partners (such as Health, SEND) to ensure that your child gets the right support at the right time. This is particularly important if your child is experiencing barriers to learning that are not immediately clear and that they may not be able or ready to explain, or that are not directly related to their time in their classroom.
The support plan for each child will be different, but the following principles apply to all of our work:
- Your child is at the centre. We will look to understand things from their perspective and see what is important to them and for them in order to succeed
- We will work in a careful way that acknowledges and learns from what has already happened, and doesn’t overlook information that is already held and understood. This will ensure we always move forwards.
- We will work respectfully with other professionals and with your family
- We will adjust the level and type of support during the plan depending on what your child shows us they need, sometimes we may need to increase the level of support, or offer an offsite placement for a period of time, in order to enable a successful re-engagement in your child’s home school
- We believe that for most children, the safest place they can be during school hours is in their community school alongside their peers and siblings, and if that is true for your child then we will be part of making sure that that can happen.
Information for Hackney schools
If you are a teacher in a Hackney school and you would like to discuss a child that you are worried is missing out on learning, then we are here to help.
You might have questions about the processes and statutory responses in the following areas, and we can help with these:
- Elective Home Education
- Children Missing Education
- Attendance
- Exclusion
- Suspensions
- Inclusion
Your school will have an allocated Outreach and Engagement Officer (O&E officer). If you are not sure who this is, please email heals@hackney.gov.uk.
Your O&E officer is likely to already be connected to staff in your school - but if you don’t know who they are, then we have some work to do to sort that out. We want every school colleague to know how to identify when a child needs support, and to know how to make sure that support is delivered promptly and purposefully.
Once you have got in touch, and identified the child you are concerned about, then we can raise them in our regular meeting in your school (we will be coming in at least fortnightly, and in many cases weekly).
Information for professionals
If you are a professional and you are worried about a child you are working with that is missing out on learning, then please email us at heals@hackney.gov.uk.