Children or young people with special educational needs (SEN), have difficulties or disabilities that make learning harder for them than other students of the same age. There are many different examples of SEN, including, but not limited to; Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), communication difficulties, specific learning disabilities, mental health conditions and medical conditions. We also work with students who suffer from Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD) and those who are at the end of their lives.

Children and young people with special educational needs, often require additional support or alternative strategies to help them with their learning and development. Our vision is the same for all students – that they are given the opportunity to be supported and empowered to achieve and reach their full potential, and to integrate them into main stream or specialist education. For older SEN students we have our Accompanied Work Placement programme to get them into college for further education, apprenticeship, or into full time meaningful work, further information on this is on the Our Services page.

Fresh Start in Education Ltd is not a school. We are a short term, interim service, designed to help students who are struggling with their education, who need help and support to re-integrate. We design a bespoke intervention package to engage with and support each individual student, according to their individual needs.

As an interim service, we work closely with schools, local authorities, social services, parents, carers, medical staff and other professionals involved with students. We ensure a consistent approach to ensure all aspects of Education, Health and Care are covered. We involve parents, carers and - most importantly of all - the students themselves, in the planning of our engagement and education packages. We continue to liaise with clients and provide feedback throughout the duration of a provision. Staff are properly supervised, and lessons observed whether face to face in person or using our live on-line platform. Data and reporting on attendance, engagement and learning are collected after each session. Safeguarding underpins all that we do.

In line with the ‘Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (Department for Education and Department of Health, January 2015) we endeavour to provide all students, whether they have special educational needs or not, with the support they need. By the time students are referred to us, they are generally no longer accessing mainstream education and require specialist input to help them to re-engage with learning and prepare for re-integration into a permanent setting. Working on a 1:1 basis allows us to focus entirely on their needs, providing them with the best opportunities to progress and have a positive experience in learning.

We are members of the Restraint Reduction Network and are committed to ensuring that, despite the behaviour of some of our students, de-escalation is the foundation to managing behaviour. Physical intervention is only used where essential in order to protect the student, other people or property. Our records show that in the last year* we ran over nine thousand sessions and less than 0.3% involved any form of physical intervention. All staff involved with students who exhibit challenging or violent behaviour are MAPA® (Management of Actual or Potential Aggression) trained and certified.

We work with some of the most challenged students, who have been unable to manage in an educational environment. We engage with 97% of them and successfully re-integrate over 93%**