The North Herts Education Support Centre (NHESC) provides behaviour support to the secondary schools within North Herts, with each school benefiting from a weekly allocation of time from a dedicated NHESC outreach worker. Outreach staff work within schools to:
- Provide social, emotional and mental health support to identified students and;
- Reduce the risk of children being permanently excluded from their schools.
School can be a challenging environment for some young people and many struggle to cope for a variety of reasons. Outreach staff will work directly with students to identify their needs and understand their difficulties. ESC staff offer a range of support: from offering behaviour advice to school staff to working 1:1 with students. Outreach staff may also work with a small group of children within the school. Strategies and topics covered include:
- Coping strategies
- Protective behaviours (personal safety, self-esteem, resilience and confidence building)
- Organisational and study skills (such as time-management, problem-solving, prioritising tasks)
- Relationships
- Bullying/Cyberbullying
If appropriate, staff can also contribute to assessments, IEPs, PSPs and EHCP meetings, etc. Referrals for this service are made by the child’s school, on the basis that the normal range of interventions have been tried but have shown little impact.
School staff will ask parents/carers to sign a Single Service Request form, indicating consent for the child to receive this intervention and for information to be shared among relevant agencies.