Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

Regional Social Strategy – the strategy to achieve social inclusion throughout the East of England
• education in the wider community.
The following interventions have been shown to be effective:
early years education
• Access to pre-school education increases attainment in national assessment tests as well as having a
positive impact on ‘school commitment’, thereby reducing the risk of disaffection and delinquency during
schooling in later years
• The integration of family support with education (SO3: 12), as in the developing children’s centres
programme, and in full-service extended schools
• Access to high quality educational provision in early years, which will typically include small numbers of
pupils, a balanced curriculum and well-trained staff.
consistently high standards of teaching and learning
• A range of educational interventions to promote the development of best practice, often by linking schools
together as in education action zones and excellence clusters
• Specific initiatives to encourage the recruitment and retention of quality teaching staff aimed at areas of
deprivation where this can be problematic
• A whole school approach to being, for example, a ‘specialist school’ in IT (information technology), sports
or arts or by becoming a ‘healthy school’. The National Healthy Schools Standard has been shown to
contribute to school achievement and other social outcomes: an accredited local healthy school
partnership can be the delivery agent for a range of interventions
• Programmes of learning in schools, which offer more variety and flexibility for individual pupils, particularly
at Key Stage 4, such as 14-16 vocational GCSEs or the flexibility to mix work experience, academic study
and community learning within the proposed 14-19 curriculum strategy.
Case study 11
Junior Youth Inclusion Project
Suffolk County Council’s Extended Schools Western Area team has successfully piloted a Junior Youth
Inclusion Project for Mid-Suffolk in partnership with the Youth Offending Service. The project targets
youngsters between the ages of eight and 13 who are in danger of being excluded from school,
and aims to prevent and reduce their involvement in youth crime and anti-social behaviour. Parents
are also offered support in dealing with their children.
The project provides a structured programme of activities through the summer holiday and one or two
evenings a week during term time. These include art, drama and music workshops, games, sports,
movie-making, play sessions and visits to attractions such as Colchester Zoo and Thorpe Woodlands.
One of the project’s opening events was a street art competition in Stowmarket Town Square which
was attended by the young people, their families, council dignitaries and education personnel.
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