Implications of the New Common Assessment Framework and Lead Professional Working for Pastoral Care Staff in Schools

Abstract

The common assessment framework (CAF) and lead professional (LP) working are being introduced into all local authorities in the next 2 years as part of the Every Child Matters agenda. This article describes some elements of an evaluation of 12 pilot trials. It was found that schools and pastoral staff in particular played a major part in the trials. The majority of the research participants thought that this was a worthwhile initiative and examples were collected of successful implementation of the scheme. However, issues of missing skills, lack of time and limited practical support for staff in schools were highlighted. It is suggested that these issues may be magnified in the full‐scale implementation of CAF and LP work. Considerable effort by pastoral staff and education managers will be required if this ‘good idea’ is to deliver improved outcomes for children in need.

CAF in the country: implementing the Common Assessment Framework in a rural area

“…Professionals used to working in this way may more readily adopt this aspect of the CAF. Secondly, while Dagley et al. (2007) also found reduced discomfort and stigmatization for families in talking to a familiar face, early rural awareness of problems and the personal credibility of the familiar worker may particularly improve the potential for achieving the CAF aim of supporting earlier intervention and facilitating change.…”

“…The lack of trust by referral agencies of CAFs completed by universal services seems to have been a greater problem than in previous research (Dagley et al. 2007) in spite of perceptions of benefits in multi‐agency working.…”

“…Firstly, Brandon et al. (2006a) found that two‐thirds of practitioners and managers said CAF had a noticeable impact on workload and recommended making allowances and Dagley et al. (2007) noted particular pressures on educational professionals.…”

“…The early evaluation of the CAF pilots (Brandon et al. 2006a,b; Dagley et al. 2007) focused predominately on densely populated urban areas with high deprivation.…”

Positive youth development in Turkey: a critical review of research on the social and emotional learning needs of Turkish adolescents, 2000–2012

“…Thirdly, some research reviewed by this study had a tendency to avoid discussing the potential role of the responsibilities of a whole school or school systems in addressing the needed changes. This is a telling feature of Turkish research, in contrast to other countries where pastoral care (de Jong and Kerr-Roubicek 2007;Dagley et al 2007), school climate (Cohen 2006) and supportive learning environments in schools (Durlak, Weissberg, and Pachan 2010;Durlak et al 2011) are a focus for research and discourse about improving schools.…”