LEA Outreach Support Services
An outreach service can be defined as one that has staff with specialist knowledge, skills and experience in a specific area. It offers support to a number of recipients, such as pupils, their families and school-based staff. Over recent years many LEAs have established outreach teams that support schools working with children with an ASD. Other outreach teams have been developed by the voluntary or independent sector, whose services consortia of LEAs can buy in. Outreach teams are an effective means of gaining an overview of provision within the LEA and the skills and needs of staff. Outreach staff can help teachers and others to network and exchange ideas and practice and can effectively act as a bridge to inclusion for children with ASDs. Some outreach staff also provide workshops for parents following diagnosis. Awareness of ASDs and the numbers of children identified with an ASD have often increased following the establishment of an outreach team and ways of managing referrals to such services and the caseloads of staff require much thought.
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Pointer 1. Has the authority established a team with specialist knowledge of ASDs, to support schools in their work with children with an ASD and their families?
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Pointer 2. Does the LEA have criteria for accessing the Outreach Support Service (OSS)?
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Pointer 3. Is the OSS involved in policymaking and planning within schools and across LEAs for pupils with ASDs?
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Pointer 4. Does the OSS have sufficient resources in terms of time, personnel, equipment and budget to provide an efficient and effective support?
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Pointer 5. Is the OSS in contact with other professionals and parents both within their own LEA and/or across the region?
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Pointer 6. Does the OSS maintain a detailed audit of casework in order to demonstrate best value and contribute to long-term projections of need?
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Pointer 7. Are there systems in place to monitor OSS's effectiveness with opportunities for the service to be benchmarked in order to improve practice?
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Pointer 8. Has the authority made a commitment to maintain and extend the levels of professional expertise of the team members through training?
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Pointer 9. Have the special schools with experience of teaching children with ASDs, developed outreach models in order to support other schools in their areas?
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Pointer 10. Are there mainstream staff within the LEA with knowledge and expertise in ASDs who could support staff in other schools/settings?
