New look at Learner Wellbeing

The changing nature of our Learners’ needs, prior to, and throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, has led ACT to rethink its priorities in relation to Learner Wellbeing.

Many Learners across the ACT Network are dealing with personal challenges, such as mental-health issues, chaotic home lives, poor general health and poor diets. As such, ACT are committed to a shift in our focus regarding Wellbeing, providing greater clarity in our approach. This means an emphasis on developing learners’ life skills – and particularly their capacity for health, wellbeing and happiness.

ACT believes that everyone has the right to participate in a programme that supports positive psychological, social and physical wellbeing. As such, our Learner Health and Wellbeing Manager (Adelle Taylor) is working with delivery teams to develop a clear and easy to digest Learner Wellbeing Strategy, that will outline our aims in relation to this area.

ACT’s approach to learner wellbeing is underpinned by the following key beliefs:

• Positive relationships founded on mutual respect and dignity whereby Learners feel a deep sense of belonging. • Learners feel safe and protected and know where to go/what to do if they need support.

• Access to support for social and emotional wellbeing is prioritised.

• Learners are included and valued as individuals.

• Learners are involved in making decisions about their future.

What we currently offer:

• Provide Learners with individualised one-to-one support in relation to their ongoing wellbeing and personal needs/ development.

• Provide Learners with access to a dedicated counselling team, offering free, confidential counselling and wellbeing support throughout their time on programme with ACT.

• Access to monthly Safeguarding/Prevent and Wellbeing topics, which are stored centrally on the ACT Curriculum Library.

Provision specific support including in ACT’s current wellbeing offer also includes:

Schools

• Use of Wellbeing ‘Check-ins’ that enable learners to openly express how they are feeling at the beginning of each day, providing staff with an opportunity to discuss what’s on their mind.

• Dedicated outreach team to engage young people in their homes or communities and supporting the transition back to education, and providing wider support to families (where needed).

• Hygiene bank to provide hygiene and personal care products to those learners who need them.

• Wellbeing Supervisions to allow us to quality assure decision making and thought processes during the triage process and for consistency across the various school sites.

• Rights Respecting School –

Bronze Award to support our school provision to embed children’s human rights in their ethos and culture.

• Running of regular Learner

Council meetings to ensure that learners have a voice, feel valued and safe.

JGW+

• Use of Wellbeing ‘Check-ins’ that enable learners to openly express how they are feeling at the beginning of each day, providing staff with an opportunity to discuss what’s on their mind.

• Dedicated Learner Support team to provide ongoing and specialist wellbeing support to learners during their time on programme.

• Delivery of regular Wellbeing sessions.

• Hygiene bank to provide hygiene and personal care products to learners who need them.

• We are currently reviewing whether the ‘Togetherall’ package would be appropriate for use with JGW+ learners - providing learners with 24-7 access to mental health/ wellbeing support at times that best suit learners.

Apprenticeships

• Launch of the Wellbeing

‘hub’ – a central site providing learners with guidance, and self-help resources.

• Performance Scorecards (Wellbeing soft-skills measure) – allowing assessors to track how learners are feeling, and identify wellbeing support needs throughout their time on programme.

• Updated IALP and Reviews that promote assessors and learners to discuss/record

‘other’ wellbeing support needs that we can assist with during a learner’s time on programme (for example, healthy eating, or smoking).

• Use of ‘Togetherall’ package, providing learners with 24-7 access to mental health/ wellbeing support at times that best suit learners.

We’re completing an ACT Network Wellbeing Review that will enable us to identify patterns and trends regarding the wellbeing needs of ACT’s Learners.

We’ll explore the viewpoints of Learners across all provision areas, mapping that against the challenges that tutors and assessors experience. It will help us to shape and refine our approaches to learner support. Once the review has been completed, the ACT Learner Health and Wellbeing Strategy will be finalised and launched to learners and staff – watch this space!

ACT has a specialist Learner Health and Wellbeing Manager (Adelle Taylor).

Adelle’s role is to develop and lead the learner health and wellbeing strategy across ACT, working across all of the provisions to ensure that initiatives are in place to improve the learner’s health and wellbeing offer and learning experience.

As part of this:

• Adelle manages the ACT Counselling service.

• Leads on the development and implementation of the ACT Learner

Wellbeing Strategy.

• Provides regular guidance and support to colleagues across the ACT Network.

• Uses information and data available to make sure that we are aware of, and responding to themes relating to the health/wellbeing of learners across the

ACT Network.

• Reviews the impact of initiatives to make sure that it is positively helping our learners.

• Is Deputy Lead Safeguarding Officer.

If you have any questions in relation to ACT’s approach toCLearner Wellbeing development, or specifically about how you can support your learners, please contact Adelle on

adelletaylor@acttraining.org.uk

or 07703753821.