Elected home education engagement project- Caerau and Ely

The Elected Home Education Engagement Project funded by Cardiff Youth Service and delivered in partnership by South Wales Fire Rescue Service, South Wales Police, Cardiff & Vale University Health Board, Cardiff Youth Service, Caroline Davies, Caerau & Ely Children’s Centre and the Community Safety Team supports elected home educated children and their families to access support, advice and guidance to prevent exploitation and other safety and wellbeing issues.

The Purpose of the Project

The partnership recognised that children and young people who were in home-education environments did not have access to the issue-based topics that would be covered by the PSHE curriculum and were therefore more vulnerable to issues relating to violence, exploitation and other safety concerns in their community. Therefore, the multi-agency partnership designed and tested a nine-week pilot project, at the beginning of 2024, that focused on supporting home educated children and young people in Year 5 to Year 11 and their families to access information and guidance on these issues.

The Pilot:

Seven families took part in the pilot and were given an opportunity to share views on what the two-hour weekly sessions would include. Each week, the families would take part in an interactive session on different topics designed to share vital knowledge and information with children and their families to protect their safety and improve their wellbeing. Topics included things like fire safety, cybercrime, immunisations, healthy eating and employment opportunities. Sessions on these topics were delivered by subject matter experts from different organisations, and were followed by activities such as cookery, art and crafts, filmmaking. In addition to the two hourly sessions, participants were also given the opportunity to have 1:1 mentoring sessions with youth mentors.

The sessions also provided families with an opportunity to socialise, share experiences and build relationships. As a result of the pilot, four young people chose to continue their youth mentoring sessions. One young person is now taking part in digital skills training with Cardiff Youth Service and one of the young learners is re-integrating back to school. For families, feedback shows the programme has allowed an opportunity for them to support one another on the home-educator journey. Families who took part in the pilot have co-designed some sessions for the next phase, with some of the parents/carers delivering the sessions.

The Next Phase:

Following the successful pilot, the next phase of the Programme will be delivered for six months between September 2024- March 2025.