Opportunities for young people who need extra support
- We will set up a Commission on youth social mobility so we can better understand the data, the drivers and the barriers. We will join the dots between our Youth Senate, Children in Care Council and our Young Person’s Commission so that we have a compressive plan to meet the challenges of youth social mobility in our Borough. This will begin by addressing educational and employment inequalities faced by young people and recognising that children and young people from low-income families don’t remain poor as adults because of a lack of intelligence or willingness to try, but through a series of barriers, disadvantage, and unfairness, including within the education system.
- We will work with children and young people, parents and carers, schools, post-16 providers and other partners to be more inclusive of children with special educational needs, so they are able to be part of mainstream education. This will include asking special schools to share their expertise with mainstream schools to help more children living with autism or with moderate learning difficulties to be able to attend their local secondary school.
- We will expand our respite residential provision for over 16’s to support their independence to adulthood.
- We will work to improve the educational outcomes for pupils who have been excluded from school by looking at, for example, alternative models of education. This could include specialist support.
- Subject to government funding we will continue working with our partners to expand the Holiday Activity Fund and deliver a more wide-ranging offer that will be attractive to all young people.
