Outreach team to help youngsters back into school
Outreach workers will save council £2m working with absent pupils v.1
A team of outreach workers are to be brought in to support children and young people struggling to attend schools in East Lothian in a move which could save the local authority up to £2 million.
A report on the new team, which will be overseen by a deputy headteacher, reveals East Lothian Council spent £2.2m last year providing education places in other local authority areas for youngsters who needed extra support as well as well as £124,000 providing third sector support.
And it says employing their own staff to provide the same services will cost just over £400,000 a year.
East Lothian Council said while the new team would allow more of the children currently having to travel over the boundary for help to remain in the county, it would not completely wipe out the cost of external provision but would reduce it year on year.
The report by East Lothian’s head of education Nicola McDowell says the new Education Outreach Service would be a temporary project for the next two years.
She said: “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic disproportionately affected children and young people experiencing social and economic disadvantage. This has been further exacerbated by the cost-ofliving crisis resulting in an increasing cohort of children and young people who are struggling to maintain good school attendance or engage in prolonged periods of learning when there.
Last summer it was estimated as many as one on ten children and young people were not in the classroom.