The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is “unlikely to be successful” for looked-after pupils unless their attachment and trauma needs are addressed, the government is being warned.
The National Association of Virtual School Heads (NAVSH), which supports 85,000 looked-after children in England, says the NTP is “only one piece of the jigsaw” when it comes to recovery.
The virtual school heads point out that many looked-after children were already accessing tutors before the NTP was set up, as part of their personal education plans.
And tuition is less “cost effective” than more “holistic” forms of support that can help looked-after children, they say.
While supportive of the NTP, for which the government has stumped up a further £1.4 billion this month, NAVSH says schools need to adopt new approaches to mental health and behaviour management as outlined in a “Call to Action” by the Attachment Research Community (ARC) charity.
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A spokesperson for NAVSH said: “Many children through the pandemic have experienced adversity, and not all will have been able to adapt or show resilience as a result of either their attachment needs or the trauma that they experienced earlier in their childhood.
“An attachment- and trauma-aware response in school, as articulated in the ‘Call to Action’, is impactful for all children. There are demonstrable benefits with the limited costs of implementation. It offers more cost-effective holistic benefits than single-subject tuition can achieve alone.”
ARC’s Call to Action is made up of seven recommendations, including that Department for Education advice on mental health and behaviour in schools should be revised to ensure that all schools have “teaching, pastoral care and behaviour management policies which take account of the emotional, developmental and relationship needs of all children, including those with unmet attachment needs and trauma”.
The charity also says schools should not use behaviour management strategies that are “potentially damaging” and calls for Ofsted, as part of its inspection framework, to look at how schools ensure that “understanding of attachment and trauma is implemented in the school’s work on personal development and behaviour and attitudes”.
Last year, MPs warned of a rise in poor behaviour fuelled by pupils’ trauma, while experts warned that schools and PRUs may struggle to cope with a huge rise in pupils affected by trauma during lockdown.
Earlier this year, as schools reopened after lockdown, the NSPCC charity warned that teachers needed support to handle pupil lockdown trauma.
The NAVSH spokesperson added: “It [the NTP] is unlikely to be successful in isolation and in many cases looked-after children have been accessing tutors prior to the commencement of the programme, as part of their personal education plans.
“The tuition programme that has been heavily invested in would be more successful if the seven recommendations from the Call to Action…are implemented too, as more of our vulnerable learners will be able to access the learning. If we are serious about recovery then we should get serious about being more informed about the proven adaptive strategies to do it.”
The DfE and NTP have been contacted for comment.
