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Dacorum Education Support Centre

Dacorum Education Support Centre

Who We Are

We are a unique organisation that works with young people who, for one reason or another, are not in mainstream education. We support the individual and their family and work together to achieve appropriate outcomes and secure a positive way forward for the future.

We are the One Stop Shop for Social, Emotional and Mental Health provision, support, advice, guidance and training across Dacorum.

We have a well established KS1 & 2 provision, The Haven at our Tenzing Road site, Hemel Hempstead. We lead and manage this on behalf of the Dacorum Primary Behaviour Service (DBPS). Primary age learners who are at risk of permanent exclusion, or permanently excluded are offered a place with the intention of returning to their current school, identification and integration into a new school or providing evidence for Education Health Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) and transfer to a specialist school.

We have a KS3 Centre based at Tenzing Road, where we offer short-term provision for learners who have either been excluded, or who are at risk of permanent exclusion from school. We aim to return the individual to school after a period of respite or to look for a fresh start in a new school.

At our KS4 Centre, Barncroft Campus, we offer one and two year programmes for Year 10 and 11 learners, who suit a more personalised learning approach. We are able to offer a range of academic and vocational courses complemented with work experience, where relevant. We work in partnership with other local providers to supplement our onsite provision. We believe in matching the correct provision to the individual and so each learner’s programme is bespoke.

Also at our KS4 Centre our nationally recognised Prince's Trust programme is based. This provides one and two year programmes with an emphasis on community, enterprise, team building, social and communication skills. This is available for learners at KS4 as well as referrals from our Dacorum secondary schools.

We provide Day 6 provision for those learners who have been permanently excluded from their school and require an educational provision from the sixth day of their exclusion up to the fifteenth day. This takes place at our Tenzing Road site and is bespoke to each individual.

Our Outreach service works with all of the Dacorum primary and secondary schools in a preventative way, to support learners and enable them to remain successfully in school. We support the transfer of learners in managed moves between schools and ensure they are supported on entry into their new school. We work with individuals, small groups and whole classes, and offer advice and strategies to staff in schools, as well as working with families and other professionals. We offer a range of staff training, and facilitate behaviour forums for primary and secondary staff to share good practice, network and gain up to date knowledge and updates on behaviour-related topics.

In addition, our Therapeutic Services team work with both the individual learner as well as parents in a holistic way, both in Centre and in our schools. The service comprises of counsellors, a Therapeutic Support Worker, three Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs) and a Drawing and Talking practitioner, together with access  and signposting to further services.

The Centre actively promotes the Hertfordshire Tiered Approach to improving and supporting emotional wellbeing and behaviour in schools and places Hertfordshire's Therapeutic Thinking (Steps) at the heart of its practices.

Our 2 mantras `Be the best you can be’ and 'Inspiring Futures' are echoed in all our work with young people, working with them to overcome their barriers to learning, re-engage them and support them in their next steps.