It dawned on us as we were planning for this week's chat that we had never really covered the area of Youth Work in any depth. Well, we managed to put that straight this week through chatting with Owen Sedgwick-Jell, the Head of Membership and Programmes at the Woodcraft Folk. Woodcraft Folk is a charity that works with young people across the country offering a place where children can grow in confidence, learn about the world and start to understand how to value our planet and each other. It is celebrating its Centenary in 2025 and is keen to increase awareness of its work. Owen explains its connection with the cooperative movement and why it's different to other youth organisations. Woodcraft Folk is run entirely by voluntary donations so if you feel able to support they'd welcome the help. https://woodcraft.org.uk/donate/friends/

Stan considers the lack of an education strategy at the moment and its impact on a range of issues. Owen then reflects on the increase in suspensions and exclusions and the possible reasons for this. Frank then points to a recent evaluation of the Behaviour Hub initiative that suggested pupils felt that standards of behaviour had deteriorated slightly whereas staff thought it had improved slightly.

It's a great chat and ventures into new territory for the Frank and Stan Chat.

Before we reach the closing credits Frank promotes the work of Russell Harvey, the Resilience Coach, who has been a guest on the chat many times. Russell has taken a short break but is now back and available for work. His details are russell@theresiliencecoach.co.uk.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A regular guest to the chat returns this week as we welcome Carolyn Eyre to discuss developments, insights and future changes to safeguarding arrangements. Carolyn worked in the Local Authority safeguarding arena for many years, first in Education Welfare services before becoming Child Protection coordinator for a large local authority. More recently, she was Head of Health, Safety & Wellbeing for the authority - combining also the roles of Senior Allegations Manager and Safer Recruitment lead officer. Carolyn is well known for her work with FE colleges and is regularly invited to speak at national conferences on topics ranging from 'partnership working' through 'creating a safe school culture' to the 'preventive curriculum'. Carolyn has a particular interest in the protection of children and young adults with disabilities; her knowledge and understanding of the complexities of safeguarding vulnerable groups has won her many friends in the special school sector nationally. She has been the safeguarding adviser to NASS and its members for more than 12 years. As a member of the Safer Recruitment Consortium task group, Carolyn was heavily involved in re-writing the national Safer Recruitment training materials launched in September 2014 and delivers T4T events nationally. So, she knows her stuff!

The chat starts with Stan considering the reliability of Ofsted subject reviews which have been heavily criticised this week for the way research evidence appears to have been manipulated to offer a preferred view on pedagogy., Carolyn then explains the significant changes to the VAT arrangements for Independent Special Schools, many of which are not-for-profit organisations and support some of the most vulnerable young people. She then considers the many changes to safeguarding arrangements that are going to be introduced for Early Years settings next year. Frank then reflects on a chat he had with a prominent CEO of a charity where it became clear that more needed to be done to support the literacy and numeracy skills of adults.

It's an enjoyable chat. We have already booked Carolyn for this time next year for another chat.

Enjoy!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.