Supporting attendance, engagement and inclusion

Welcome to Shropshire’s Education Access Service.

Thank you for visiting our website, it's designed to help practitioners and families find out what help and advice is available from us. Please take time to explore the website and find out more.

We have a fantastic team in the Education Access Service who are here to support, so please feel able to get in touch to share good news as well as when support is needed.

Jo Kelly, Head of the Virtual School and Access to Education

What is the Education Access Service?

Our team provides inclusion and education welfare support to families, schools and partners. A key part of this includes safeguarding.

Our aim is to improve outcomes for children and young people who are in need of support to achieve successful attendance, access and inclusion in education settings.

What do we do?

Our team promotes education, attendance, inclusion, safety and wellbeing. We also influence policy and practice that affects our learners. We advise and work closely with schools/settings, parents/carers and other professionals such as early help and social care to support our children to fulfil their potential.

We provide advice and training to professionals on matters that are important for our children; it's important we hear their voice on what's important to them so we can act in their best interests.

We work hard to ensure that Shropshire’s children and young people have the opportunities they need to fulfil their potential and improve their life chances so they can be healthy, happy and live their best lives. We are mindful to promote a way of working that asks the question ‘would this be good enough for my own child?’.

Our team supports with statutory functions, such as:

Elective Home Education
Children Missing Education
Section 19
6^th day provision for young people who have been excluded
Attendance and the legal processes to support this
Child employment

We also support and advise as follows:

When a child/young person is at risk of exclusion or suspension
We can come into your school/setting to undertake Pupil Planning Meetings, these are aimed at reducing the risk of suspension or exclusion. These are most effectively used as an early intervention strategy but can bring people together to help reflect and move forwards with a robust plan when there's been an incident
With the Shropshire Inclusion Pathway – through Integrated Consultation Panels, TMBSS Pathway and Section 19 requests

Where are we based?

At the Guildhall offices in Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ.

Team contacts

Attendance

Name: Jo Smith
Role: Lead Education Officer (attendance)
Phone number: 07990086269
Email address: jo.smith@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Vicky Rodgers
Role: LA Attendance Officer
Phone number: 07990085781
Email address: vicky.rodgers@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Jessica Richards
Role: Education Welfare Officer
Phone number: 07890400648
Email address: jessica.richards@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Lorraine Lovell
Role: Education Welfare Officer
Phone number: 07990085370
Email address: lorraine.lovell@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Kelly Brookes
Role: Education Welfare Officer
Phone number: 07990085364
Email address: kelly.brookes@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Emma Sanders
Role: Education Welfare Officer
Phone number: 07977670029
Email address: emma.sanders@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Emma Chafer
Role: Education Welfare Officer
Phone number: 07990086144
Email address: emma.chafer@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Kate Phillips
Role: Education Welfare Officer
Phone number: 07990086046
Email address: kate.phillips@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Paul Kissack
Role: Education Welfare Officer
Phone number: 07815453050
Email address: paul.kissack.education@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Michelle Lyons
Role: Education Welfare Officer
Phone number: 07990085983
Email address: michelle.lyons@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Laura Mathias
Role: Education Welfare Officer
Phone number: 07990086152
Email address: laura.mathias@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Lori Caulfield
Role: Education Welfare Officer
Phone number: 07990086269
Email address: lori.caulfield@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Amy Ward
Role: Education Welfare Officer
Phone number: 07815473304
Email address: amy.ward@shropshire.gov.uk

Inclusion

Name: Adriana Coupe
Role: Lead Education Officer (inclusion)
Phone number: 07990085492
Email address: eas@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Katy Hughes
Role: Senior Inclusion Support Officer
Phone number: 07990085913
Email address: katy.hughes@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Hazel Griffiths
Role: Inclusion Support Officer
Phone number: 07456016881
Email address: hazel.griffiths@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Jason Millington
Role: Inclusion Support Officer
Phone number: 07812078258
Email address: jason.millington@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Joanna Biggs
Role: Inclusion Support Officer
Phone number: 07815473272
Email address: joanna.biggs@shropshire.gov.uk

Name: Karen Hopkins
Role: Inclusion Support Officer
Phone number: 07990085976
Email address: karen.hopkins@shropshire.gov.uk

Election Home Education — Elective home education

Children Missing In Education — Children missing education (CME)

Transition Between Schools — Transition between schools

Pupil Leave Of Absence — Pupil leave of absence

Exclusion From School — Exclusion from school

Children In Employment — Children in employment

Children In Entertainment — Children in entertainment

Sharing Good Practice — Sharing good practice

EAS are working in collaboration with Inclusive Attendance to develop improvements in attendance for Shropshire’s children and more widely across our region.