Our Pathways of Support

Our service delivery is organised into seven distinct pathways. These pathways are designed to help schools and colleges identify the specific type of support they need, ensuring alignment with national guidance and the Ofsted inspection framework.

Core and Refresher Pathway of Support

This pathway is aimed at providing staff with the knowledge and skills on a range of topics related to children’s emotional health and mental wellbeing. The pathway is a comprehensive offer to educational settings. The pathway consists of evidence-based training sessions delivered on Microsoft Teams and one-to-one specialist consultations to support staff to apply the knowledge and skills taught practically in their settings.

Alignment with Guidance & Frameworks

Ofsted Inspection Framework: The quality of teaching is a key judgement area for Ofsted. The inspection criteria refer to the importance of ensuring that all teaching staff benefit from appropriate professional development and that performance is rigorously managed. When assessing leadership and management, inspectors must consider the school’s use of performance management and the effectiveness of strategies for improving teaching. This should include the extent to which professional development is based on the identified needs of staff and the induction needs of newly qualified teachers and teachers at an early stage of their career.
Department for Education (2021): Staff Development, primarily promoting staff health and wellbeing, is an integral principle of the whole setting approach to emotional health and wellbeing. Staff may first need to look after their own wellbeing to be able to support students. School/college professionals are not expected to replace specialist services but it is important that all staff have the knowledge and skills through relevant training to support the emotional wellbeing and resilience of students.
NICE (2022): The guidance recommends settings provide continuous professional development and training to staff to support both their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of students; signposting to staff for wellbeing support; peer supervision; and protected time for supervision for those in pastoral roles (1.1.8; 1.1.9; 1.1.10; 1.1.11; 1.5.1).
Skills for the Mind Pathway of Support

This pathway is aimed at providing staff with the knowledge and skills to enable them to attend to their personal, team and organisational wellbeing needs. This includes training on supporting staff wellbeing at the personal, team, and whole setting levels. The pathway is a comprehensive offer to educational settings. The pathway consists of evidence-based training sessions delivered either face-to-face or on Microsoft Teams, alongside wellbeing consultations, peer support network meetings and evidence-based six-session staff support groups.

Alignment with Guidance & Frameworks

Ofsted Inspection Framework: The quality of teaching is a key judgement area for Ofsted. The inspection criteria refer to the importance of ensuring that all teaching staff benefit from appropriate professional development and that performance is rigorously managed. When assessing leadership and management, inspectors must consider the school’s use of performance management and the effectiveness of strategies for improving teaching. This should include the extent to which professional development is based on the identified needs of staff and the induction needs of newly qualified teachers and teachers at an early stage of their career.
Department for Education (2021): Staff Development, primarily promoting staff health and wellbeing, is an integral principle of the whole setting approach to emotional health and wellbeing. Staff may first need to look after their own wellbeing to be able to support students.
NICE (2022): The guidance recommends settings provide continuous professional development and training to staff to support both their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of students; signposting to staff for wellbeing support; peer supervision; and protected time for supervision for those in pastoral roles (1.1.8; 1.1.9; 1.1.10; 1.1.11; 1.5.1).
Relationships, Connectedness and Belonging Pathway of Support

This pathway is aimed at providing staff with skills to develop compassionate relationships as well as cultivate an ethos and environment of connectedness and belonging. The pathway is a comprehensive offer to educational settings. The pathway consists of evidence-based training sessions delivered face-to-face or on Microsoft Teams, peer support network meetings and one-to-one specialist consultations.

Alignment with Guidance & Frameworks

Ofsted Inspection Framework: One of the four key Ofsted judgements is promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. When judging behaviour and safety Ofsted looks for evidence of a positive ethos that fosters improvements in the school as well as the promotion of safe practices and a culture of safety.
Department for Education (2021): The physical, social and emotional environment in which staff and students spend a high proportion of every weekday has been shown to affect their physical, emotional health and mental wellbeing, as well as impact on student attainment. Relationships between staff and students, and between students, are critical in promoting student wellbeing and in helping to engender a sense of belonging to and liking of school or college.
NICE (2022): The guidance recommends that settings have a culture, ethos and practice that strengthens relational approaches and inclusion, that recognises the importance of psychological safety and that promotes targeted support that includes peer-to-peer support. (1.1.2; 1.1.17, 1.4.6).
Targeted Support Pathway

This pathway is aimed at providing staff with the knowledge and skills to provide targeted support to those who need. The pathway is a comprehensive offer to educational settings.

Alignment with Guidance & Frameworks

Ofsted Inspection Framework: Ofsted inspectors will be interested in how monitoring ensures that individual children or groups of children with identified needs are targeted, and appropriate interventions are secured so that children receive the support they need, including through effective partnerships with external agencies and other providers.
Department for Education (2021): The physical, social and emotional environment in which staff and students spend a high proportion of every weekday has been shown to affect their physical, emotional health and mental wellbeing, as well as impact on student attainment. Relationships between staff and students, and between students, are critical in promoting student wellbeing and in helping to engender a sense of belonging to and liking of school or college.
NICE (2022): The guidance recommends settings adopt a graduated approach to support; promote targeted support (including peer-to-peer support); and have robust assessment and tailored interventions for those students experiencing educational transition, significant life changes or mental health problems (including when they exist in the wider family) (1.1.18; 1.3.3; 1.3.4; 1.4.6; 1.5.2; 1.5.3; 1.5.4; 1.5.5; 1.5.6; 1.5.7).
SEND Code of Practice (2015): Class and subject teachers, supported by the senior leadership team, should make regular assessments of progress for all pupils…[this]…can include progress in areas other than attainment (6.18; 6.19; 6.20).
Working with Parents and Carers Pathway of Support

This pathway supports schools in effectively engaging and working with parents and carers to support pupil outcomes.

Alignment with Guidance & Frameworks

Ofsted Inspection Framework: The Ofsted inspection criteria expect schools to be engaging parents in supporting pupils’ achievement, behaviour and safety and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Ofsted inspectors have a duty to have regard for the views of parents. Inspectors will also take account of the results of any surveys carried out or commissioned by the school.
Department for Education (2021): The family plays a key role in influencing student’s emotional health and mental wellbeing. There is strong evidence that well implemented universal and targeted interventions supporting parenting and family life have the potential to yield social as well as economic benefits.
NICE (2022): The guidance recommends settings involve parents and carers in designing and implementing the whole setting approach, as well as, when appropriate in discussions about offering targeted support (1.1.14; 1.4.3).
SEND Code of Practice (2015): One of the key principles is that children and young people and their parents must be involved in discussions and decisions about their individual support and about local provision (1.3).
Identifying Need and Monitoring Interventions Pathway of Support

This pathway is aimed at providing staff with the skills to identify the wellbeing needs of all within the school community including ways to monitor the impact of interventions. We are excited to launch this new pathway of support. The pathway currently consists of one evidence-based training session delivered on Microsoft Teams and one-to-one specialist consultations to support staff to apply the knowledge and skills taught practically in their settings.

Alignment with Guidance & Frameworks

Ofsted Inspection Framework: When inspecting the quality of leadership in and management of the school Ofsted inspectors should consider the effectiveness of monitoring and evaluation and the extent to which it is shared with governors. They should also consider how well the school meets the needs of all vulnerable groups of pupils. Assessing and responding to the emotional health and wellbeing needs of children and learners, and taking steps to mitigate the impact this has on their capacity to learn could provide supportive evidence in relation to all key judgement areas: the achievement of pupils at the school, the quality of teaching in the school, the behaviour and safety of pupils at the school and the quality of leadership in and management of the school.
Department for Education (2021): There are a variety of tools that education settings can use as the basis for understanding and planning a response to pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing needs. The tools range from simple feedback forms to validated measures which can focus on both wellbeing and mental health. Defining pupil need on a more formal basis can help to inform commissioning decisions at school/college level, across clusters of schools or at a local authority level. It is equally important to be able to record and monitor the impact of any support that is put in place.
NICE (2022): The guidance recommends settings have clear guidance when identifying students at risk of poor social, emotional and mental wellbeing and employ universal interventions that align with the whole setting approach (e.g. student-to-trusted adult support); consider the cumulative effects of risk and protective factors; and use multiple sources of information, that may include validated tools, when assessing a child’s needs (1.2.6; 1.3.1; 1.3.2; 1.3.5; 1.3.6; 1.4.1).
SEND Code of Practice (2015): All children and young people are entitled to an appropriate education, one that is appropriate to their needs, promotes high standards and the fulfilment of potential and identification should be built into overall approach to monitoring the progress and development of all pupils (6.1; 6.5).
Coaching, Consultation and Supervision Pathway of Support

This pathway supports the professional development and performance management of staff through coaching and supervision structures.

Alignment with Guidance & Frameworks

Ofsted Inspection Framework: The quality of teaching is a key judgement area for Ofsted. The inspection criteria refer to the importance of ensuring that all teaching staff benefit from appropriate professional development and that performance is rigorously managed. When assessing leadership and management, inspectors must consider the school’s use of performance management and the effectiveness of strategies for improving teaching. This should include the extent to which professional development is based on the identified needs of staff and the induction needs of newly qualified teachers and teachers at an early stage of their career.
Department for Education (2021): Staff Development, primarily promoting staff health and wellbeing, is an integral principle of the whole setting approach to emotional health and wellbeing. Staff may first need to look after their own wellbeing to be able to support students. School/college professionals are not expected to replace specialist services but it is important that all staff have the knowledge and skills through relevant training to support the emotional wellbeing and resilience of students.
NICE (2022): The guidance recommends settings provide continuous professional development and training to staff to support both their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of students; signposting to staff for wellbeing support; peer supervision; and protected time for supervision for those in pastoral roles (1.1.8; 1.1.9; 1.1.10; 1.1.11; 1.5.1).