Hi Everyone Just letting you know that Oilean will be presenting a workshop at the upcoming Care Leavers Covenant Conference. The workshop will be in partnership with Dean and Cauvin Young People's Trust and focus on our Moving on -in partnership in developing materials to support young people in achieving the National Certificate in Tenancy and Citizenship award. These are really well developed materials which offer young people the opportunity to research just how difficult independent living really is and the opportunity to change their mind and Stay Put! Not sure if the covenant or Dean and Cauvin Trust have a Facebook page - if they do can you like them!! John C

Are you a senior carer or support worker who requires the PDA in supervision to meet the SSSC registration requirements? Or A Social Care Organisation, looking to support senior staff in the achievement of this award? Yes! Then come and speak to Oilean training. Our realistically priced qualification includes all materials, registration for the award with SQA and the support of a qualified assessor/tutor. For further details contact Oilean Training on 08443577876

ARE YOU A SENIOR CARER OR SUPPORT WORKER WHO REQUIRES THE PDA IN SUPERVISION TO MEET THE SSSC REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS? Or a Social Care Organisation, looking to support senior staff in the achievement of this award? Yes! Then come and speak to Oilean training. Our realistically priced qualification includes all materials, registration for the award with SQA and the support of a qualified assessor/tutor. For further details contact Oilean Training on 08443577876

www.sqa.org.uk

Oilean has been nominated for an SQA STAR award this year, in fact in two categories - partnership and Innovation. See categories at www.sqa.org.uk. I am keeping my fingers crossed The first one is for Innovation with Up to Us Ltd; http://www.u-2-u.org. "Education is recognized the world over as the key to escaping poverty and in the UK education has become equivalent to qualifications. The first qualification can often be the key to the second and so on. The educational outcomes for young people leaving care are widely recognised as being very poor. The outcomes for many leaving care are often marked by poverty and or prison. The governor at Polmont Young Offenders Institute at a conference in 2015 stated that 50% of young offenders in Polmont have a history of care. On their website the Who Cares Trust state that 30% of homeless people have been in care. Conversely it also must be recognized that the lack of educational achievement is not in any way a reflection of lack of ability or intellect by young people in care. Oilean is an SQA Centre which has specialized in delivering Health and Social Care Awards from SCQF level 6 to 10. Oilean’s core work is with adults and their employers working in health and social care. OIlean provides one to one support to enable them to meet the professional qualification registration requirements of the Scottish Social Services Council and continuing employment in the sector. Oilean is Gaelic for training and nurture. Oilean provides a range of qualifications to meet the registration requirements particularly of small care provider/employers in a variety of group and community settings across Scotland. A number of those employers have been working with Oilean for many years. The Directors and staff of Oilean are all qualified social care workers experienced in working in the social care sector, particularly with young people. In 2014 Oilean was approached by one of their employer partners, Up to Us Ltd, a charity with a focus on the needs of young women leading chaotic lives, who have been in care or prison. Up to Us wanted to explore the development of a qualification that they could support young people to gain and to support positive outcomes for their client group. One of the key principles was that the qualification should be a recognized qualification and not a specially developed one, which could lead to stigmatization of the young people. It must be one which might be recognized and understood by any prospective employers. Oilean consulted with the SQA business manager. From that consultation Oilean sought and gained approval to deliver the NC in Personal Development a widely recognized qualification which can be gained at school or college and involved in employability and a wide range of occupations. In partnership Oilean and Up to Us developed a model of working to support the young women to achieve the NC in Personal Development; a qualification that could be achieved at school, if they had attended, but because of the challenges in their lives may have had little incentive to do so in the traditional way. The pupil/teacher relationship is recognized as central to young people achieving qualifications. Unfortunately young people in care often have very difficult or no relationship with their teachers. Young people in care are often expected to undertake complex tasks as part of the care planning processes etc that are not part of the traditional school curriculum. It would be true to say that there is little recognition of the educational nature of many of those tasks. The clear demarcation between care and education means that opportunities for young people in care to receive educational recognition for their achievements are often missed. The guiding principles which govern care and education in Scotland and underpin the Curriculum for Excellence, Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) and Shanarri are fundamentally very similar. Educationalists and social workers are generally trying to achieve the same outcomes with young people, just using different tools, and with slightly different perspectives. That became particularly clear when the managers of Oilean and Up to Us looked at the outcomes involved in the NC in Personal Development: Self-Awareness, Self and Society, Self and Work and Practical Abilities. It also became clear that just as the teacher-pupil relationship is key in traditional education settings the key to these young people achieving the qualification lay in the relationship with the keyworker. The role of the assessor from Oilean has become one of supporting the keyworker as a mentor to the young person. Social care in general and Up to Us in particular has a well-educated workforce with experience and understanding of the nature of SVQs, of portfolio building and assessment. The model was based on the keyworker/ mentors ability to transfer that experience into helping the young people to develop their own portfolios. Using the assessment strategy as a tool Oilean developed a workbook which helps focus the attention of the mentor on appropriately supporting the young person in the tasks required for the assessment. The programme also uses an individualized person-centred model to support young people to achieve their award in preference to the traditional class focused model used in schools and colleges. In the last year 10 young people have achieved their qualification, with a number also achieving core skills. It became clear that having managed supporting young people to achieve the personal development award the workers wanted to extend the range of qualifications they could help with and it was evident that they could manage to support young people with core skills also. The feedback from the keyworkers has been universally positive and some have said that mentoring young people through the award has given them more focus in their work with young people. Several mentors have begun work on their own portfolios for the learning and development assessor awards. The young people have been delighted with their achievement of a qualification that they would otherwise not have achieved. Oilean has recently extended the project to include another residential care provider and has been asked by a national care provider to develop the workbook and programme which will be adapted to the needs of people with visual impairments. The second one is for partnership with Dean and Cauvin Trust: see www.deanandcauvin.org.uk "Oilean is an SQA Centre which has specialized in delivering Health and Social Care Awards from SCQF level 6 to 10. Oilean’s core work is with adults and their employers working in health and social care. Oilean provides one to one support to enable them to meet the professional qualification registration requirements of the Scottish Social Services Council and continuing employment in the sector. Oilean provides a range of qualifications to meet the registration requirements particularly of small care provider/employers in a variety of group and community settings across Scotland. The Partnership was formed in 2015 when Oilean was approached by the Dean and Cauvin Trust who are one of their Residential Care Provider Partners. The Trust provides a continuum of care and support to young people, including those that have children, through residential childcare and foster placements through to living independent lives in the community. The Trust has a range of supported tenancies for young people moving on from formal care settings to less supported accommodation. The Trust wanted to be able develop an SQA award to both recognise and reward the progress that young people in care can achieve during their progress to independence. Richard Costigan the Trusts Transitional Manager acknowledged that in most cases young people from a care background have for a number of reasons disrupted education patterns both academically and within practical learning of life skills that the majority of the population gain from family members. The aim was to create a detailed and meaningful program for Residential and Transitional Staff to work through with young people as they begin to consider a life beyond care and to evidence their academic ability. Richard says “The future doesn’t always seem bright for young people leaving Residential Care and attempting to live independently. In fact, 82% of young people leaving the Dean and Cauvin Trust’s care homes used to lose their tenancies within six to twelve months, with 41% receiving a criminal conviction and 83% being unable to find a job. Research tells us that the majority of young people leaving care experience issues of personal resilience and low confidence. When they come across practical and emotional challenges of independent many young people find it challenging to cope.” One young person commented: “The first night in my tenancy and at 2 in the morning my washing machine started leaking all over the floor I didn’t know what to do! So I just left and went to my mates... I then couldn’t face going back” The partners saw an “Achieving Independence” award as crucial in bridging the gap between care and education, improving personal self-confidence and promoting educational attainment. Such an award would be an official endorsement of the work that the young person had achieved in their preparation for independence. The Scottish Government introduced the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act in 2014 enabling young people to have a right to remain in care up to the age of 21. According to the Economist newspaper the average age of leaving home across the UK is 24/25 so this policy development is a welcome change bringing young people in care more into line with other young people. It also gives much more time for care providers, like Dean and Cauvin, to support work with young people on the skills of young people needed in preparation for independence, and hopefully will make the transition to independence easier, more successful and more realistic. The discussions between Oilean and Dean and Cauvin lead to consultation with Oilean’s SQA Business Manager who identified the new Tenancy and Citizenship Award as one possibility. The partners agreed this was a way forward but also recognised that the award required to have a workbook and materials to contextualise the standards making them much more understandable and achievable by young people leaving care. The partners worked jointly on the materials, firstly expanding the qualification by blending the award with materials developed by Richard Costigan loosely linked to an UK government program called ‘Get Ready for Adult Life’. The award and the materials worked well together and the materials were further developed by adding in local information making the workbook specifically focused on Edinburgh. During the approval process the SQA verifier noted that the materials were the most comprehensive he had seen and was pleased to give Oilean approval. Oilean is the first centre outwith the Prison Service to achieve approval. The innovative delivery model was fully discussed. The teacher-pupil relationship is key to achievement in traditional education terms however in our model the key to these young people achieving the qualification lies in the relationship with the keyworker. The role of the assessor from Oilean has become one of training and supporting the keyworker as a mentor to the young person. Dean and Cauvin has a well-educated workforce with experience and understanding of the nature of SQA awards, of portfolio building and assessment. The model is based on the keyworker/ mentors ability to transfer that experience into helping the young people to develop their own portfolios of evidence to achieve the award. The programme is delivered on a one to one with relationship based care at its core. The Programme and the award have been fully integrated so that by completing the tasks within the Programme the candidate and worker will be able to fully evidence both the achievement of the award and the young person’s readiness for independent living. When the young person’s portfolio is completed the SQA certificate will form lasting evidence of their achievement. It is planned that by implementing the model and helping young people achieve the awards the keyworkers will themselves be accruing evidence towards their own assessor qualification. The Trust is currently working with young people in training flats towards completing the Programme achieving certification and successfully moving on from care. The partners are also working on making the programme and award package available to other providers and young people across the wider network of care providers in Scotland".

Comments from Qualification Verifier "A small centre with very positive and pragmatic staff. The centre has established methods of assessment and internal verification required by SQA and does it well. The resources and staff experience are very good for the candidates to grasp the differing concepts within the award which in turn motivates and assists the learners. The candidates feedback reflects the good teaching practice and individual support. The centre wishes to enhance the external verifiers visits within their new working practice by using different centres for verification so that a closer detail of the working environment of the candidates is shown.This in turn becomes a learning process for all involved. The centre as previously has evidenced its commitment to candidates and SQA. Well done" Alex Johnstone: EV from SQA Thank you for the kind words - John C

"Oilean Training and Nurture Ltd was established twelve years ago by John Cran, who’sbackground is Social Work. The centre has grown steadily in candidate numbers and now offers a wide range of awards in Health and Social Care, Management, Personal Development and Learning and Development to around 40 candidates at any one time on a rolling programme. Candidates can embark on their course of study at any point and the centre is adaptable, allowing candidates to work through the qualification at their own pace. Oilean Training and Nurture Ltd has robust quality assurance measures in place. The wealth of experience both as assessors and in the health and social care field is clear in this small team. Several elements of good practice were identified" Jill Little, Systems verifier, SQA

"Evidence of all assessment unit/specs,methods and instruments used, assessment decisions and candidate evidence for the two candidates. Standardisation arrangements, minutes of meetings. Internal verification procedures and practice. Accommodation was reviewed and all assessment materials and resources. Records of candidates development needs were seen and as previously the centre was very transparent and open to EV visit. An organised well run centre with a small team that are very experienced. Their teaching practice is very good and this is reflected in their candidates work and results. Used to EV visits and they have been working within SQA guidelines for some time." Alex Johnstone External verifier for SQA re Professional Development Awards in Leadership and Management of Care. He made other nice comments that I will post later