Care Matters: Naace position paper

Naace Position Paper: December 2006

About Naace

Naace is a membership Association with a membership drawn from those advisers and consultants providing services and support for ICT in schools, primary and secondary teachers, those working in teacher education, and within the post-16 sector and Higher Education. Naace is much more than a subject association. Whilst we hold a remit for the development of quality teaching of ICT as a subject, we are also deeply concerned with the role that ICT can play in enhancing teaching and learning in all areas of the curriculum and with the use of ICT to support school leadership and management, including the management and effective use of student data.
We are heavily involved in the e-maturity arena, holding responsibility for the administration and assessment processes for the ICT Mark, and are working closely with the DfES and Becta in the development of concepts and ideas for the creation of a nationally adopted IT Quality Mark for Education Professionals and also, the creation of a similar mark for those service providers who support education. Together with the creation of robust CPD programme activities, including initiatives designed to support the development of a doctorate teaching profession, the Association’s package of support to the community provides a compelling and exciting programme for workforce reform.
Naace has a keen interest in the Every Child Matters agenda, and are eager to work closely with multi-disciplinary team to ensure that technology is used to maximise the life chances of all children. The Association hosted a think tank on the 5th April 2006 and many of the recommendations contained within the Position Paper associated with this event have a direct correspondence to Care Matters.
As an Association we are strongly supported by the education ICT industry. Over 120 companies work with us as sponsoring partners and this partnership between an educational professional association and such a large industry community is unique and acts as a powerful mechanism to drive forward the transformation agenda.

Introduction

Care Matters proposes a set of answers to the question “What is the best way to care for children who, for reasons not of their making, are unable to grow up with their birth parents? “ It starts from the premise that our goals for children in care should be exactly the same as our goals for our own children and recognises that at the moment our care system fails to enable most children who enter it to achieve these aspirations despite the efforts of many committed people – professionals and non-professionals alike The result is that many children in care underachieve educationally and get nowhere near fulfilling their potential as adults. The statistics are startling: only 11% of children in care attained 5 good GCSEs in 2005 compared with 56% of all children, and similar performance gaps exist at all ages both before and after Key Stage 4; and children in care are over- represented in a range of vulnerable groups including those not in education, employment or training post-16, teenage parents, young offenders, drug users and prisoners.
Addressing every aspect of these children’s lives and every public service they encounter, the Green Paper aims to transform both the way in which the care system works for children and the quality of experience they and others on the edge of entering or leaving care actually receive. Recognising the level of diversity both in the population and in children’s experiences of care, the proposals set out within the Green paper offer a flexible approach based on personalisation rather than a one-size- fits-all solution to closing the gap in outcomes.
The Green Paper asks for responses to a number of proposals and asks “will they make a difference to the lives of children in care – enough to achieve the transformation we want to see? And If not, what more should Government do?
Whilst Naace members are interested in the impact of the report as a whole, this response focuses on learning and the use of technology to facilitate a better way to collaborate with multi-agencies working in the field.
We do, however, wish to add this general point – this should also apply to children who grow up in environments where their care is shared between their birth parents, agencies and additional parenting responsibilities such as extended family members, foster parents.
We recommend that the profile of a young person in care should reflect the profile of a typical achieving young person growing in the mid-21st century. This should include flexibility in leaving home arrangements into the mid 20’s, an opportunity for ‘gap’ year where appropriate, and access to technology that is “normal” for most children and young people in care.

Support of education, extending learning and communication

We recommend that the best practice and use of ICT is applied, not only to the individual at school but at home. Naace would be a helpful expert advice role here.
One of the key features for a consistent adult will need to be their understanding of the role ICT will play in the looked after children’s lives. This will include safeguarding but should also include supporting the child or young person to develop a repertoire of ICT skills and experiences that will enable them to operate successfully.
Children in care often do not have regular access to computers and the internet at home and Naace supports action to provide children in care with access to a laptop if the child has a record of being moved regularly from place to place, or if space at the child’s home is restricted; or desktop if there is room and the child is in a stable environment. The benefits that this action would bring are numerous including the safeguarding of the child and ability to improve their life chances; reinforcement and extension of learning; enabling access to the curriculum for children out of school; and through extending communication by helping the child to stay in touch with friends and family; as a means for self expression and communication; and for leisure and recreation.
Such action would place the child in a position of trust and associated actions would need to be put in place to ensure the safeguarding of the equipment and of the child in terms of inappropriate use. Measures to raise awareness of internet safety and its dangers, and knowledge of where to seek help and advice when required, such as that provided by CEOP ( http://www.thinkuknow.net and http://www.ceop.gov.uk ) and Becta (Safeguarding Children in a Digital World) would need to be undertaken and remote monitoring of internet usage (with the full knowledge of the child and others in the home environment) could also be investigated as a means to guard against inappropriate use. This would have the effect of reducing the disadvantages faced by children in care resulting from lack of experience with out of school use of ICT and have a positive impact on the child’s learning.
The use of ICT at home enabled by the provision of equipment and internet access can be used to reinforce and extend learning. Children can use it for their homework assignments and coursework (depending on changing regulations on the latter) and with the extension of extended schools access, many of the digital resources used by schools can also be accessed by pupils from their homes. There are many free educational resources available from home and ways of providing access to subscription material could also be examined. Access to material through learning platforms and e-portfolios could provide continuity even when the child moves between schools. The use of ICT at home would help pupils become skilled in the use of office software to improve their employment prospects.
The use of learning platforms and e-portfolios that could be accessed after a child has moved home and moved school would provide some stability in the child’s education and is an important potential benefit for pupils in this vulnerable group. Computer literacy is an essential requirement for many courses so those without access to a computer at home are at a serious disadvantage during the transition to adult and working life.
This argument can also be extended to apply to those young people in care who enter higher education. It is generally the case that parents purchase a laptop for their children as they enter higher education. In the case of children in care, it would be appropriate that one was purchased for them, as a reward for their achievement in getting a place in higher education and to enable them to have the same advantage as other students in access to ICT.
Other advantages of access are helping children in care to stay in touch with friends and family. Children in care sometimes move frequently and this seriously disrupts their social and emotional life and education. Having a means to keep in touch with family and friends, through emails and other forms of ICT, would be a very helpful and act as a stabilising influence.
ICT is a major means of communication among young people. Children as young as 7 years old keep in touch with each other at home through a computer messenger service. Not only are they building their friendships but improving their linguistic abilities too through the use of this resource. It is important that children in care have the same opportunity.

Use of ICT to support professional development and general use of technology within multi-disciplinary teams

The use of learning platforms and on-line programmes of study will open up opportunities for professional development within multi-disciplinary teams. The creation of a national CPD framework accessed by all working in education, health and social care will enable equality of access. A framework that addresses skills training as well as higher level post graduate programmes of study; and that allows enquiry based activities within a work place setting, with participants choosing freely their own area of study with content taken from their work based setting, will provide the motivation for continued professional development in all areas.
Naace is greatly concerned at the lack of inter-operability between those information systems that operate in the educational and care sectors.
In the past, most inter-disciplinary meetings have been through case conferences. These are often inconvenient for many to attend and involve schools in expense and inconvenience. The use of ICT for the child’s carers, social workers, teachers and other appropriate professionals to keep in touch would be a great benefit.

Monitoring achievement, information sharing and strengthening accountability

Naace would wish to support the work of the national centre for excellence by providing:

• Support for research activities from the Naace community; and
• Helping the development of knowledge and expertise in ICT for commissioners.

Naace is concerned that ICT is seen as a background resource expected to cope without being given prominence. There are significant problems with information sharing; and this made more complex by the need to share information with the voluntary sector; the difficulty of those working in education in engaging with those professionals working in the health sector and the differing levels of systems knowledge in social care colleagues. Security, internet safety and secure data exchange are all major challenges to be addressed and the problems of interoperability faced by LAs and RBCs, with schools and partners mitigate against the need to share information.
Naace strongly believes that nothing should stand in the way of effective data sharing. Local authority information sharing protocols need to be revisited and there is a primary need for priority action to create one national systems for all, including corporate systems and also initiatives such as e-CAF, where no e-system is in place in many authorities and where there are huge differences between e-CAF and the Index. There is an urgent need for the creation of a collaborative secure e-mail system and there is significant scope for central approach to facilitate these issues and autonomy for Local Authorities in this area is not seen as good way forward: professional discussion is not helpful as this will lead to delays in implementation and local interpretation will differ leading to lack of clarity.
Naace have no knowledge of similar organisations to Becta working in social care or health and recommend that the remit of Becta is extended to cover these sectors and to bring coherence.
Naace also recommend that need to examine and bring together best practice.
ICT can greatly assist in the communication process between schools, carers, social and medical workers involved with the child to enable access of information including updates on attendance, homework, behaviour and general progress. However, individual teachers may find it difficult to maintain effective regular liaison, particularly when the school has more than one child in care so it may be necessary for one teacher in the school (or a designated professional in the local authority) to act as a liaison officer on behalf of all the relevant teachers in the child’s school.
ICT can support significantly, the role of the Virtual Head teacher through the creation of a virtual “school” using the functionality and strengths of learning platforms, e-portfolios and discussion forums to create a community of interest for children in care. The availability of online tutors that children in care could turn to for advice on their out of school hours learning and would maintain the link with them even after they move home and/or school would also be of significant value.
Naace recommends that in order to develop an appropriate learning platforms or on-line learning resource for children in care, it would be worth looking at what is already available commercially, both at home and overseas. Although it is unlikely that anything already exists that completely meets the needs of these children, it is important that we build upon existing good practice. Some of the new learning platforms are very good, enabling the use of virtual interactive whiteboards and effective one-to-one and group teaching. A survey of resources currently available should also be carried out covering the quality, forms of presentation and interactivity, extent to which the national curriculum and exam courses are covered and forms of record keeping and feedback to pupils and teachers.
In turn, local authorities and School Improvement Partners can use ICT to monitor the achievement of children in care through the sharing of records of pupil progress. This could be particularly helpful for those involved in the child’s care but unable to have regular access to the child’s teachers. This facility could also be very helpful when the child moves between schools and to enable head teachers and senior social workers to maintain an oversight of progress.
The creation of virtual communities of interest could also encourage the participation and engagement of children in care, ensuring that their voice is heard and that they received regular feedback on their views. Through this means, ICT could enable the child to have access to all of those with an interest in their care, including those that they see rarely and have the opportunity to express themselves.