Outreach advisory service – Jigsaw Service

Mission statement

We provide an attentive service, that listens and develops understanding of children’s social emotional mental health (SEMH) needs in order to develop inclusive practice in schools.

Vision statement

That all children are educated in an inclusive educational setting, that uses relational and trauma informed practice, so that their social, emotional, and mental health can thrive, and they can engage in their learning.

Values

Compassionate

We show empathy and acceptance by attending carefully and actively listening to what everyone is saying to develop better understanding of everyone’s concerns about a young person. We consider the wellbeing of everyone involved i.e. child, school and parents.

Empowering

We consider, analyse, facilitate and connect with everyone, so that we can help them grow in confidence and encourage them to make changes that will make a difference to a young person’s future. This enables the child, school and parents to make those changes and builds their resilience and capacity to cope with the demands made of them.

Innovative

We inspire everyone to be reflective, curious and creative in developing new solutions and strategies that enable a young person to engage in the relationships and opportunities in school.

Aims

We aim to:

  • help vulnerable young people reconnect with their learning by helping them to feel safe enough to access their education
  • be curious about behaviour, aiming to understand it’s a communication of possible unmet needs
  • support adults supporting children who are displaying challenging behaviour, where their ‘window of tolerance’ is low’ and they are finding it demanding to engage within the mainstream school environment
  • support school staff, parents and young people to calm, connect, think and adapt (Regulate Relate Reason) so that the young person can successfully engage in their learning environment
  • reduce the risk of a young person being suspended or excluded from school

Our offer

When a request is accepted, we work with school to plan the support to be provided. The plan can agree to:

  • undertake a comprehensive baseline of assessments that indicate strategies that may be used to meet their needs
  • provide a variety of interventions; on a one to one, in groups or with whole classes, that can develop; their ability to respond to supportive relationships, their emotional literacy, social skills and self-esteem
  • support staff to provide the strategies needed to support the young person through regular meetings
  • support school and parents to facilitate a Pastoral Support Programme (PSP) that closely monitors strategies and actions taken to support the young person to maintain their place in school
  • provide family support by referral to the Jigsaw Family Support Worker
  • provide training for schools on a range of topics relevant to supporting young people at who’s behaviours are causing concern or with SEMH needs in order to build a school’s capacity to successfully maintain the young person within their setting (this is tailor made to meet the needs of the requesting establishment)