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What

Did you know that CAAS can provide our specialist youth service directly in your school, if you buy-in to having one of our Youth and Schools Support Workers (YSSW) based in your high-school setting? We currently have 6 members of staff based partly in local schools, working across 16 different secondary schools, offering our full range of one2one work, psycho-education courses, social groups, parent drop-ins, teacher support, peer assemblies and training directly in those schools.

Our CAAS Schools Project aims to support schools to empower their ADHD and autistic pupils, by building the student’s understanding of their condition, equipping them with coping skills and supporting their mental wellbeing. We know, from many years of working with young people, that this support has the following impacts:

• When young people have a good understanding of their condition, they become more confident in themselves, and feel less ‘different’, boosting their general wellbeing and reducing mental health crisis and school avoidance
• When young people build strong relationships with trusted adults, they feel more confident to advocate for what they need to succeed, meaning classroom settings become more manageable, reducing escalations and improving academic attainment
• When young people have improved coping strategies, they are better able to manage and regulate their emotions, improving classroom dynamics, and boosting longer-term engagement in their studies

On top of this, the project provides direct support, training and skills building for teachers, SENCOs and all the school staff, which helps them feel more confident in their support of ADHD and autistic young people, improves acceptance, and develops new strategies for effective teaching of neurodivergent pupils. It also helps build a more neuro-affirming school environment more generally, giving support and information to parents, and allowing pupils of all neurotypes to thrive.

Some of the benefits schools have seen have been:

• Our YSSWs become a trusted member of the school community, and find that they are constantly used for advice, support and insights to teachers about many more ADHD/autistic pupils then are actually referred in and using our service.
• We provide a huge array of bespoke resources for students and teacher, for example on revision techniques, zones of regulation, anxiety management and executive functions.
• Many pupils present with complex mental health and safeguarding needs, and our YSSW, the youth manager and our leadership team have all supported with completing risk assessments, recording disclosures, completing ongoing referrals and attending multi agency meetings.
• Many of the pupils we support feel more confident on the days when we are present, so we have become a reassuring presence in the morning, supporting students to feel able to come to school and engage in their studies.