The Hope Service Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Use the recently refined assessment of pupils’ readiness to reintegrate fully into substantive placements to further enhance the quality of teaching and the curriculum, contributing to Hope’s relentless drive to improve outcomes for pupils.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The firm and unwavering grip among leaders and staff on the core purpose of this distinctive service is a significant factor in its success. Leaders’ exceptionally clear thinking and vision mean that they recognise both the potential benefits and limitations of what the day programme can offer. Their candid self-awareness brings a finely tuned focus that enables them to excel at the unique opportunities offered. They do not allow this focus to be diluted by less-important, peripheral concerns. Although aspirational, leaders are realistic about what can be achieved, given the restricted timetables and limited duration of many pupils’ placements.
• The amalgamation of two previously separately registered units has been exceedingly successful. The ‘one service, two sites’ mantra is well borne out by the daily reality across the day programme on both sites. A high degree of consistency is not only achieved in terms of processes and systems but also, significantly, in terms of ethos, culture, atmosphere and approach.
• Education, health and social care professionals combine and wrap their collective expertise around each pupil. This multi-disciplinary strategy is woven so tightly and seamlessly together that it transcends the type of partnerships often seen elsewhere. Instead, leaders have created a single, unified team. High levels of mutual respect lend cohesion to the team but not at the expense of mutual professional challenge for the benefit of pupils.
• Lines of accountability between the service manager and teacher in charge are very well established. The service manager demonstrates clear and crisp strategic thinking. The teacher in charge provides credible leadership of the day programme. He is clear-sighted about what effective teaching in this context looks like, and is able to quickly and accurately identify what is going well and what could be improved.
• Like all staff in the service, team managers exhibit a tireless passion and enthusiasm for a fully rounded view of what is in the best interests of each pupil. Throughout the team, on each site, there is an overwhelming sense of determination and energy. Staff are unanimously proud to work at Hope, and rightly so.
• With no hint of complacency, the drive for improvement is utterly relentless. Leaders have not allowed their acute awareness of the realities of the challenging context to give permission for even a hint of any excuse culture. Staff are supportive of the recent initiative to refine the work the programme does to prepare pupils for their next steps. This willing acceptance of the strategy is partly because they feel involved in decisions about its adoption. Most staff also agree that leaders take workload into account to avoid placing unnecessary burdens on the team.
• Performance management systems align very closely with the day programme’s improvement priorities. This joined-up approach helps to make the performance management process pertinent and meaningful.
• Leaders and staff are highly proactive in trying to work with pupils’ substantive schools. Because pupils cannot be referred to the service by their school, this partnership is not always as close as it could be or as leaders would like. However, typically, leaders focus tirelessly on trying to find a solution to any problem. They have devised, and are soon to trial, new approaches to fostering positive relationships with schools. The service already offers considerable outreach help for schools in the authority by sharing expertise through training sessions for staff and leaders. Feedback about these from attendees is very positive.
• Leadership of provision for pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities is excellent. Leaders are tenacious advocates for pupils’ best interests, despite not being the named placement on individuals’ education, health and care (EHC) plans. Leaders’ rightful priority is to ensure that teachers are supported to take the fullest account of pupils’ EHC plans when planning and teaching lessons. This is a particular challenge due to the constantly transient pupil population.
• Curriculum programmes are carefully designed and readily adapted to meet pupils’ individual needs, interests and aspirations. Pupils spoke of how much they appreciate the flexibility shown by the service in balancing their academic and therapeutic needs. Their mental health and intended discharge plan are key factors in shaping the best possible curriculum for each individual. Leaders recognise the future potential to use their refined assessments of pupils’ increasing readiness to return to substantive placements to hone even further the curriculum for some pupils.
• Within the restricted number of available lessons in each pupil’s timetable, English and mathematics feature prominently. However, there is an extensive range of carefully conceived and planned programmes across a diverse and varied curriculum. These programmes are helpfully ‘oven-ready’, to be drawn on and adapted when required for individual pupils.
• The thoughtful and suitably bespoke promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development draws from this extensive range of planned programmes. A significant aspect of this work is linked to the charting, celebrating and symbolising of each pupil’s ‘Hope journey’ through artwork, commemorative tiles and writing farewell letters.

Governance of the school

• Through the service’s management committee, the governance of the day programme is a significant strength of leadership and management. Highly ambitious governors share the same constant drive for improvement evident from programme leaders. They are also rightly proud and passionate about what has already been achieved.
• Drawing on their individual expertise and collective wealth of experience, governors’ combined breadth of multi-disciplinary know-how is impressive. Governors convey a deep understanding of the particular nuances of this distinctive service. Local authority governors have a powerful presence on the committee and help preserve the particular place and function of the service in the local area.
• Through sharply focused discussion, asking leaders probing questions and timely visits, the management committee keeps a finger on the pulse of the day programme. Governors are supportive but not afraid to challenge leaders and managers to strive for further improvement.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• It is abundantly clear that the safeguarding of these highly vulnerable pupils is paramount. Throughout both sites, relevant safeguarding prompts, information, contacts and advice are readily available for both staff and pupils.
• Well-established systems and processes ensure that staff are fully briefed and completely up to date with each individual pupil’s welfare, mental and emotional well-being and medical and educational needs. The strength and effectiveness of this systematic approach, tested to the limits by the highly transient pupil population, must not be underestimated.
• A wide range of relevant training is carefully tracked and monitored to ensure that all staff have the relevant knowledge, skills and understanding to protect pupils and promote their safety. The responsibilities and accountabilities for safeguarding pupils are firmly established and very well understood.
• The full breadth of professional expertise feeds into high-quality risk assessments. Leaders and staff are keenly aware of the potential dangers for young people locally and feed this intelligence into their risk-management strategy effectively. Rightly, the accurate assessment and management of risk go far beyond a bureaucratic paper exercise, to the genuine and impactful daily management of the day programme.
• The well-maintained single central record provides a clearly labelled and readily navigable register that confirms that all the relevant checks on the suitability of adults have been completed.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teachers’ expectations of pupils are high. However, acutely aware of pupils’ individual mental health and other needs, they sensitively judge and adapt their approach accordingly. Teachers are mindful of relevant advice from therapists, clinicians and social workers. Nonetheless, the whole team maintains an ambitious and aspirational longer-term focus on pupils’ successful reintegration into substantive placements.
• Teachers quickly come to know each pupil extremely well. They take considerable care to digest information about their histories and current situations, as well as pupils’ hopes and aims for their futures. Teachers then use this information to systematically plan and carefully prepare extremely purposeful and productive lessons. They are very successful in finding ways to complement and enhance any learning and study from pupils’ substantive schools.
• Across both sites, teaching and learning are characterised by the highly positive atmosphere and deftly fostered relationships. Teachers are mindful of pupils’ views and opinions, and act on these when appropriate. However, they are warm but suitably firm in their approach, using their deep understanding of the pupils to be gently but appropriately insistent in their educational expectations.
• Teachers’ subject knowledge is strong. They employ it skilfully to move pupils on from their individual starting points. For instance, teachers offer clear and accessible explanations of technical vocabulary, using specific examples to develop pupils’ understanding. Teachers’ skilful and sensitive questioning takes full account of pupils’ needs.
• Teachers’ thorough assessment of pupils’ work and their carefully crafted feedback help pupils make the most of the often-limited time they have in day-programme lessons. One pupil, who was particularly enthused about how valuable this bespoke advice is, described how much this enhances the feedback he receives at his substantive school.
• Teachers are supportive of recent work to hone the assessments of pupils’ readiness for successful discharge. They are keen to use the increasing wealth of available information to further adapt their teaching.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• On both sites, the atmosphere and tone throughout the environment are exceptionally well judged. Staff achieve a finely poised balance between their friendly approach and a sufficiently professional and purposeful quality. They manage this expertly, without being unduly formal or in the least threatening.
• Pupils have a very strong voice in the day programme. Adults encourage and support them to share their views through lessons, regular discussions and the more formal case reviews. Pupils also have important opportunities to genuinely influence the running of the service through their community meetings. The use of child and adolescent mental health service youth advisers to chair these meetings helps ensure that they are purposeful and productive.
• Through highly personalised case reviews, professionals identify, plan and evaluate the extensive support and opportunities for each pupil. Adults invest incredible care and attention to get pupils’ individual discharge plans and transition arrangements spot on. This close-knit team of professionals unfailingly keeps sight of the individual pupil, having a shared determination to make the transition a success.
• The varied personal, social, health and economic programme is tailored well to pupils’ individual needs. Typically, this targeted approach is in response to identified potential or actual risks and vulnerabilities to the safety and well-being of each pupil. For example, leaders and staff are highly alert to the possibility of child sexual exploitation, radicalisation and extremism.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• The typical picture is one of significant and sustained improvements in behaviour and engagement for the many pupils who have struggled in their previous, and sometimes substantive, schools.
• Between lessons, a calm, friendly, social atmosphere signals the cohesiveness of the community. Adults and pupils come together to eat and drink before moving swiftly to their next activities, following the extremely well-established routines. Any anti-social behaviour or bullying are very rare.
• Staff are patient but persistent when pupils initially resist re-engaging with their education on first admission. Once pupils are engaging, teachers’ skills, dedication and careful preparation mean that lesson time is, typically, very productive. Pupils demonstrate considerable pride in their written work, completing it to a high, and sometimes immaculate, standard of presentation.
• Staff have every reason to strongly believe that, collectively, they manage the behaviour of pupils extremely well. They overwhelmingly believe that leaders support them well in this work.
• Compared with their previous placements, the large majority of pupils take significant strides towards establishing good habits of regular attendance at the day programme. This routine is a vital part of their preparation for their future lives.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Many pupils have a previous history, and for some, current experience, of disrupted or dysfunctional education. Given the projected outlook for individuals when they are referred to the service, most pupils take significant strides towards a more positive next stage of their education, employment or training. Where individual pupils do not make as much progress, this is rapidly identified by staff and a solution is sought. Upon discharge, the rate of readmission of pupils is low.
• Very effective transition arrangements at both ends of pupils’ placements mean that the precious, and sometimes limited, time that pupils have access to the day programme is utilised effectively. Leaders and staff are very proactive in seeking information from substantive schools. Wherever possible, teachers ensure that work in the day programme aligns with, contributes directly to and enhances pupils’ studies in their substantive schools.
• Work in pupils’ books provides clear evidence that they progress very well in a relatively limited time towards qualifications in English and mathematics. Pupils acquire and develop important basic literacy skills. Their confidence and competence grow across a wide range of topics in mathematics.
• As a registered examinations centre, pupils are enabled to take GCSE examinations, where appropriate, and attain outcomes that may otherwise not be possible. Other pupils work towards and obtain qualifications, such as functional skills, that enable them to access college placements.
• Staff keep a very close check on pupils’ progress in a wide range of areas, not only academic, but also across a broad range of personal development outcomes. These show marked improvement for the time that pupils attend the programme.

School details

Unique reference number 134870 Local authority Inspection number Surrey 10049028 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Pupil referral unit School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Pupil referral unit 11 to 18 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 25 Appropriate authority Surrey Teacher in charge Oliver May (teacher in charge), Laura Craggs (service manager) Telephone number 01483 517 190 Website Email address www.hoperservice.org.uk hope.guildford@surreycc.gov.uk Date of previous inspection 17–18 January 2013

Information about this school

• The Hope Service is a multi-agency service for pupils aged 11 to 18 who have complex mental health, emotional, social and educational needs which cannot be met by one agency alone. It is a joint partnership between Surrey County Council and the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. This inspection focused predominantly on the day programme.
• Pupils can only be referred to the service through a social care or health route. Schools cannot refer pupils directly. In almost all cases where they have another placement, pupils remain on roll at their substantive schools. The service provides short-term placements, usually between six and 12 months in length.
• Since the previous inspection, two separate units (Hope Guildford and Hope Epsom) have amalgamated. The service continues to operate on two separate sites.
• The integrated leadership structure and team incorporate professionals from a range of agencies and disciplines. This includes teachers, social workers, nurses, psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists and activity workers. The service manager line-manages the teacher in charge who is responsible for the quality of education across both sites. The current teacher in charge took up post in September 2017. Each site also has a team manager.
• The service does not use any alternative providers.
• At any given time, the service is likely to provide places for a small number of post-16 students. These are not reported on separately to avoid the risk of individual students being identified.

Information about this inspection

• The nature of the day programme meant that there was a limited amount of teaching taking place during the inspection, especially on the first day. However, one inspector visited six lessons across both sites to gather evidence, accompanied by the teacher in charge. They also scrutinised a wide range of pupils’ work, and leaders’ records and evaluations about the typical quality of teaching, learning and assessment over time.
• Inspectors observed other parts of the operation of the service and day programme, including the daily staff briefings and a case review. Inspectors also observed arrangements during breaktimes, and an inspector met with pupils and staff at lunchtime.
• The inspection team spoke with a wide range of people during the inspection to gather their views, both formally and informally. This included pupils, parents, carers, care-home staff, social workers, therapists, the clinical psychologist, teachers, leaders, governors and representatives of the local authority.
• There were no responses to Ofsted’s parent survey, Parent View, or the confidential pupil questionnaire. However, in addition to discussions during the inspection, inspectors noted findings from leaders’ own recent surveys. They also took account of 25 responses to the confidential staff questionnaire.
• Inspectors scrutinised a wide range of documentation and records relating to the day programme.

Inspection team

Clive Dunn, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Ross Macdonald Ofsted Inspector