Home Alone

Description

In this programme, a group of governors consider the hypothetical situation of discovering that a student at their school is living at home without adult supervision.

Inititally, the governors must decide how to advise school staff after a Year 9 pupil's behaviour causes concern. They then discuss how best to react using the guidelines of the Every Child Matters agenda and a multi-agency approach.

The panel are told that the pupil in question lives in the care of a teenage relative and has been caught shoplifting. This is despite the fact that her academic performance is improving and that she seems to be settling in well at school.

The governors discuss how the school's child protection policies should be implemented and how they should involve outside agencies such as police and social services.

Meanwhile, senior local authority education officer Paul McGann listens to the group's discussion and offers his advice on how to proceed.