Providing specialist schools for Priory Healthcare inpatient services
Mental health conditions can have a significant impact on the life chances of our young people. Receiving specialist Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) inpatient care can be a positive turning point towards management and recovery for many, but the time spent out of school, college or training can have a detrimental effect on learning and progress. On admission, many young people will already have missed a substantial amount of education, sometimes months, sometimes years.
Aspris Children’s Services has an outstanding track record in supporting young people to successfully continue their learning and development during their time in inpatient care with mental ill-health. We currently deliver this service nationally across Priory’s CAMHS hospital services where there is a well-established and successful partnership to deliver registered school provision.
The benefits of an Aspris Hospital School include:
- Flexible and carefully crafted curriculum design, together with teachers’ expertise in re-engaging young people in learning
- Positive engagement that underpins the recovery journey and helps to minimise length of stay
- Aligned clinical and therapeutic timetables, designed to maximise participation and increase learning opportunities
- Specialist skill and experience in working closely with clinical teams
- Bespoke and highly individualised learning for each young person, based on their specific needs, stage of recovery and mental health journey
- Experienced and specialist staff who are highly skilled in supporting young people with significant challenges, vulnerabilities and additional needs
- High expectations of each young person to attend, engage and learn
How we support Priory’s hospital services
High-quality on-site school provision in a mental health setting is an essential part of a young person’s treatment programme. It promotes continuity, enhances emotional wellbeing, and underpins the smoothest re-integration possible to mainstream or specialist education, or into the workplace.
Guidance in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice requires that children and young people in hospital should have access to education that is on a par with mainstream provision. This includes children and young people admitted to hospital under Section 2 or 3 of the Mental Health Act.
Our Aspris Hospital Schools provide for this requirement, ensuring the delivery of both exceptional educational outcomes and extremely high standards of Ofsted compliance.
Our specialist staff provide valuable support and insight, working closely with Priory’s Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs) and external agencies, contributing fully to the Care Programme Approach (CPA) model.
Key features – What does an Aspris Hospital School provide?
Aspris provides specialist schools within each CAMHS inpatient service where young people attend for the duration of their hospital admission. All young people are admitted to the school roll, including those who may be NEET (not in education, employment or training) on admission or become NEET during their stay.
When they join our hospital schools, young people are often unable to imagine a positive or long-term future for themselves. We maintain a strong focus on helping our young people to understand themselves and the world they live in. Over time, this helps them to build resilience, grow in confidence, and start to think more positively about their lives. As they reach the end of their time in our schools and move towards discharge, with sensitivity and in manageable steps, our staff skillfully prepare them for what will happen next.
Key features of an Aspris Hospital School
- Age and stage appropriate learning opportunities through our own specialist curriculum, expertly tailored to meet each individual’s interests and needs, and taking account of each young person’s point of recovery
- A full academic and pastoral curriculum, including English, Maths, Science, PSHE and a wide range of other subjects across Key Stages 3, 4 and 5
- Working with each young person’s home school or college (where appropriate) to ensure that learning opportunities and development are not compromised by their inpatient stay
- Exclusive teaching and learning areas, with dedicated specialist staffing and resources
- Managed and structured transition back to mainstream or specialist schools and colleges, the workplace and the community
- Substantial investment in IT and carefully managed Wi-Fi access, allowing young people to be supported in learning throughout the ward and not just within our classroom settings
- Bespoke individual learning plans for each young person that take account of their past experiences, aspirations, SEND and SEMH needs, and their general health