Outreach workers to be brought into schools amid attendance concerns in East Lothian

A team of outreach workers are to be brought in to support children and young people struggling to attend schools in East Lothian in a move which could save the local authority up to £2m.

A report on the new team, which will be overseen by a deputy headteacher, reveals East Lothian Council spent £2.2m last year providing education places in other local authority areas for youngsters who needed extra support as well as well as £124,000 providing third sector support.

And it says employing their own staff to provide the same services will cost just over £400,000 a year.

East Lothian Council said while the new team would allow more of the children currently having to travel over the boundary for help to remain in the county, it would not completely wipe out the cost of external provision but would reduce it year on year.

The report by East Lothian’s head of education Nicola McDowell says the new Education Outreach Service would be a temporary project for the next two years.

She said: “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected children and young people experiencing social and economic disadvantage. This has been further exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis resulting in an increasing cohort of children and young people who are struggling to maintain good school attendance or engage in prolonged periods of learning when there.

“It is the commitment of Education and Children’s Services that our children and young people are “living and learning in East Lothian”. It is also the commitment of The Promise and East Lothian’s Corporate Parenting Plan to ensure that families are supported to stay safely together at home.

“The establishment of an Equity and Inclusion Education Outreach Service will: provide greater consistency of experience for learners; ensure that our most vulnerable children and young people benefit from the ambition, care, and skill of our own workforce; contribute to keeping our learners within East Lothian and offer greater value for money.”

Eight outreach workers are planned to be taken on as well as a business support administrator and a deputy head to oversee the plan. None of the outreach workers will be teachers.

Concern over the absence rates at East Lothian schools remains high on education services priorities after it failed to return to pre Covid rates following lockdown.

Last summer it was estimated as many as one on ten children and young people were not in the classroom.