Supporting disaffected pupils: Perspectives from the pupils, their parents and their teachers

This paper is based on an evaluation of a three-year Home Office funded project that involved placing social work trained home-school support workers in secondary schools, which were experiencing relatively high rates of pupil disaffection and exclusions. It focuses on process, rather than outcome, data and, in particular, on key issues arising from an analysis of teachers', parents'/carers' and pupils' perspectives derived mainly from semi-structured interviews. Three themes are addressed: the school-based casework conducted by the support workers; working with families; and home-school liaison. Support workers were uniformly valued for their independence, accessibility and availability; skill in developing trusting relationships; and sympathetic constructive advice on problems. They were responsible for facilitating, often for the first time, joint parent-teacher interaction in the discussion of pupil problems. Senior management and pastoral staff found that support workers saved them much time undertaking tasks - especially pupil counselling and home-school liaison - that they would otherwise have had to do themselves. Key factors responsible for the success of the support workers included their social work, rather than education, background and their location in schools as part of the school staff. The findings are related to national policy in England on the potential role of a variety of support staff, key workers and personal mentors in schools to combat social and educational exclusion.