Complementary Education Service - Sefton Council

The Complementary Education Service supports the continuing education of children of statutory school age who unable to attend school for medical reasons.

The Service also:

• Provides support for home educating families.
• Provides additional support and advice to schools for children with English as an additional language.

The main aims of the Complementary Education Service are:

• to help pupils who have experienced a period of illness, develop their self- confidence resilience and academic progress.

• to enable pupils to reintegrate into mainstream provision as soon as their health needs allow.
• To enable EAL (English as an Additional Language) pupils develop language proficiency to a point at which they can access the wider taught curriculum.
• To maintain oversight of and support for home educated pupils across the borough.

Its key duties are:

• Supporting schools in ensuring that they are meeting their responsibilities to provide a minimum statutory entitlement for pupils who cannot attend due to illness or during a maternity leave.
• Providing teaching and learning support for pupils open to specialist CAMHS services, mental health practitioners, hospital based paediatric services and paediatricians.
• Working with schools, families, and health professionals to produce and implement support plans to allow pupils to access suitable and flexible education appropriate to their needs, and which are responsive to the demands of their changing medical needs.
• Providing teaching support across KS 1,2,3, and 4 in a variety of settings including the home, the Spinal Injuries Unit, groups at the Pinefield Centre, libraries, children, and family centres and within schools.
• Enhancing the learning opportunities and achievement of pupils by the creative use of ICT and Distance Learning strategies.
• Liaising with outside agencies, schools and families, to develop strategies to raise levels of achievement for vulnerable groups to enable them to access education and achieve their full potential.
• Providing guidance to schools and families regarding the Education of Sick Children.
• Providing support and advice to schools regarding Minority Ethnic, Traveller, Asylum Seeker and EAL pupils.
• To offer support to home educating families and maintain oversight of the educational arrangements for home educated pupils.