WORKING WITH COMPLEX NEEDS

RAISE-AP’S approach to working with young people with complex needs is grounded in the belief that children thrive when they feel safe, understood, and valued. Ours RAISE moto is BE KIND, WORK HARD and AIM HIGH valuing our young people and instilling in them that the future is not a place you’re going to, it is a place you’re making. We aim to create a provision that is relational, trauma-informed, and highly individualised, ensuring every child is met with high expectations, emotional containment, and consistent boundaries.

Safeguarding is the heart of everything we do and is proactive not reactive. The welfare of each child underpins every aspect of our provision. The actions that we take to prevent harm; to promote wellbeing; to create safe environments; to educate on rights, respect and responsibilities; to respond to specific issues and vulnerabilities all form part of the safeguarding responsibilities of RAISE-AP.

All staff understand their responsibilities under Keeping Children Safe in Education, and we have a strong culture of reporting, acknowledging ‘it can happen here’ and utilising CPOMS, daily welfare checks (emotional and physical) and robust professional relationships between organisations. We culture a safe, predictable environment and our small group sizes (including 1:1), consistent routines, clear expectations and emotionally available adults aim to reduce anxiety, support regulation and create psychological safety. We have, linked to our provision, a consultant SENCO for advice, guidance and professional feedback.

Through our curriculum, PSHE, RSE and SMSC play a crucial role, and we underpin everything by teaching our young people to recognise unsafe situations, including online, alongside understanding boundaries, personal safety, healthy relationships and how to seek help.

We have robust staff training, with key staff having many years of experience in education, to ensure training, staff development and CPD are regular for areas such as CCE, CSE, prevent, county lines, FGM and other areas, ensuing we support, signpost and spot signs of any concerns with our young people, many of whom are at risk of extra-familial harm. Our senior staff are all DSLs with many years of experience, and are trained and continue to develop their knowledge, with experience of MASH, Inter-Agency referrals, working alongside CAHMS, forensic CAHMS, AIMs assessments, LADO knowledge, youth justice and the importance of safer recruitment, all in order to safeguard every young person at all times. We take pride in our data rich provision, tracking patterns of risk such as attendance (EBSA / EBSNA), travel routes, peer associations, changes of behaviour, unexplained money or possessions. We work closely with the local authority, partner schools, parents and carers and other external agencies to ensure regulation communication so emerging risks are shared quickly and managed appropriate.

Our young people have trusted adults at RAISE-AP, where we use relational and non-judgemental approaches, so children feel safe and disclose concerns. Our team is trained and experienced in supporting children who have experienced trauma, disrupted attachments and adverse childhood experiences. Staff receive trauma-informed practice training, attachment-aware approaches (PACE / DDP), behaviour as communication training, safeguarding and prevent training alongside therapeutic support skills to best support young people with SEMH and other needs.

PARTNERSHIPS

At RAISE-AP we take a deliberately collaborative, strengths-based approach to multidisciplinary working. Our aim is always to create a coherent, joined-up plan around each child so that support is consistent, purposeful and focused on enabling them to thrive both academically and personally. We actively invest in building strong professional relationships with all agencies involved in a child’s life. As a team of educationalists with a combined experience in the classroom and in leadership of over thirty years, we know the importance of strong wrap-around care. Our relationships include fellow education professionals, social workers, health practitioners, CAMHS, SEND services, youth justice teams, our consultant SENCO and any commissioned therapeutic partners which may be required for the support with our young people.

Our contribution enhances multidisciplinary working through:

• Clear information-sharing protocols that ensure timely, relevant updates while remaining fully compliant with GDPR and safeguarding legislation.
• Regular multi-agency meetings where required, such as annual reviews, CIN meetings, TAC/TAF meetings etc… 
• As an alternative provision our aim is to provide daily feedback to local authorities and schools, feeding back with assessments, progress updates, attendance and social and emotional observations.

RAISE-AP see ourselves as both a provider and a partner – adding value, not duplication, to the wider plan around the child.

Our RAISE-AP staff are trained in trauma-informed practice, attachment-aware approaches, de-escalation, SEND strategies, and a range of therapeutic and restorative techniques. This is through both training and CPD, as well as key members having significant experience in mainstream and SEND schools in both the classroom and at senior management level. This means we can implement multi-agency recommendations effectively and ensure the intent of interventions is translated into meaningful day-to-day practice.

We recognise that young people progress fastest when the adults around them communicate openly and are trusted. We place a huge emphasis on building relationships with families, carers, key adults and any significant people in the young person’s life, and at the heart of it all, with them. Personal development is a key metric to our provision’s development plan, ensuring: student voice and culture of inclusivity and belonging to RAISE-AP with values-driven, respectful and included students; promotion of mental health and wellbeing for engaging positive starts to the day; and a robust safeguarding culture and a focus for students with age-specific staying safe online education.

Our approach includes strong communication with home and parents/carers; listening to lived experiences of the young person and the family; supporting with jargon-free timely guidance; and creating a collaborative atmosphere with the ultimate goal of bringing together professionals, parents and key adults to ensure the young person experiences a holistic, well-coordinated plan that meets their educational, emotional and social needs.

SERVICES

RAISE-AP aims to provide students with a curriculum which is tailored to meet their needs, their future aspirations and to re-engage them in education so that they can reach their full potential. Each pupil receives a bespoke, individualised programme of study based around or RAISE-AP values of resilience, positive attitudes, an interest in their education, fostering self-confidence and having empathy, showing kindness and tolerance to all. We believe that, by providing an individualised, personalised programmes of study which prioritises both academic and holistic development, the outcomes our young people achieve will have a lasting positive impact on their lives.

We aim to prepare our students for their pathways into young adulthood by providing recognised qualifications in key core and foundational subjects at a level appropriate to the learner and through pastoral support to invoke holistic development. We aim to give all our young people opportunities to experience a variety of extra-curricular experiences alongside work placements to inspire future career paths.

There are a number of factors that contribute to RAISE-AP being able to deliver a bespoke curriculum. Our location, in Eastleigh (easily accessible to Southampton, Bournemouth, Christchurch, Portsmouth, Winchester and the New Forest), means we have on our doorstep access to a wide variety of leisure, cultural and historical opportunities. This means that we can be adaptable to meet our students’ needs and change the learning environment where required, bringing the curriculum to life and supporting social and emotional development alongside academic progress.

We boast high staff ratios, which can, if necessary be as high as 1:1, to support the needs of our students. With the RAISE-AP staff team being highly trained and fully committed to supporting students in achieving their potential, we are able to offer a comprehensive range of qualifications which include English, Mathematics, Science, Art and Photography, Citizenship, PSHE and Personal Development Learning, ASDAN, Computing, Outdoor Education, and Physical Education and Sports Fitness.

These academic qualifications have a range of levels - from entry level 1 functional skills to GCSE and Level 2 awards. We also focus on employability qualifications, ASDAN and work experience opportunities, enabling our young people to boost their next steps into college, careers and independence. This ability to bespoke and individualise a wide range of qualifications are proven to engage a diverse range of learners, ensuring an appropriate balance between attainment, achievement, expectations for good citizenship and becoming prepared for young adulthood and next steps after 16.

We will consider any EHCP, risk assessment or consultation and are confident that we can tailor an educational package to meet the needs of any individual student. Our assessment and feedback is rigorous, with the curriculum being the progression model and as Dylan Williams comments: “good feedback leaves learning with the learner”. Staff professional development is centred around evidence-based teaching and learning, with ‘Friday Read’ staff development from Alex Quigley, the EEF, Teacher Head and Mary Myatt amongst others.

SOCIAL VALUE

RAISE-AP is committed to creating positive, lasting impact across the local community. One of our values is EMPATHY, where we instil valuing and caring about each individual, showing kindness and tolerance to all in our community. We recognise that effective education extends beyond the classroom, and we therefore embed community engagement and social value at the core of our delivery model.

We actively try to engage our local youth services, such as sports clubs, community centres and other activities to broaden our young people’s access to positive, structured activities. We also link to local business to enable work-experience opportunities to help with employability and life skills. RAISE-AP is active with national and international events, as shown in our calendar with events such as black history month, space week, yellow-mental health and many more through each month. 

We believe in social action projects, led by our young people including being active in local clean-up projects, community gardens/farms and fundraising and awareness campaigns. These are linked in through our curriculum, with our aim for our young people to value community and the role they play in it.

We recognise families are central to a child’s success and to strengthen community connections we will host family learning sessions, celebration events showcasing student work and provide signposting for joint events with local agencies such as mental-health workshops and resilience-building. Physical activity, early intervention and emotional wellbeing are key drivers for us.

Our RAISE-AP commitment to our young people stretches beyond what is taught and learnt in the provision. We are designed around each young person and their unique strengths, allowing them to thrive, become independent and succeed in pathways that they wish to follow when looking at their next steps in education or the wider workplace. Our guidance to our young people is:

THE FUTURE IS NOT A PLACE YOU’RE GOING TO. IT IS A PLACE YOU’RE MAKING…