ARC - Chair Update - March 2026

This has been a very busy month at a national, regional and local level with many areas creating a range of optimistic developments. The National Association of Virtual School Head Teachers (NAVSH) annual gathering in Birmingham and the Association of School & College Leaders (ASCL) conference in Liverpool collectively provided a national platform for discussions around ‘belonging’ and ‘inclusion’. The challenges continue to be around consistency of understanding and practice, alongside the limited resources that will be available and how more connectivity and collaboration across services supporting children and young people would maximise effectiveness.

There is further encouragement in other national forums, where ‘like-minded’ professionals are continuing to promote inclusive practice around relational approaches. ARC have hosted the on-line TIAAS roundtable event engaging with over 30 national organisations and professionals. This continues to ensure that there is an open channel of information around developments across the ‘wider system’. This is illustrated by the Inclusive Practices Forum facilitated by Nurture UK which has direct links into the APPG for Inclusion, the curriculum development work with ASDAN, the focus on Internal Alternative Provision with The Education Community Partnership Ltd, a reflection on research about ‘belonging’ with the REES Centre, and a link with the Ministry Of Justice around there work with preventing care experienced young people entering the youth justice system. The aim of this work is to produce a strengthened and expanded protocol that local services will adopt to reduce the number of care-experienced children and young people entering the criminal justice system.

ARC will be involved in a series of weekly workshops over a 4-week period to agree what an updated protocol needs to say, and how it should be implemented. These workshops will cover the following:

1. How to identify children in care at risk of later criminalisation – the risk factors services should look out for, and how information is shared across relevant services

2. The early intervention and diversionary support these children (and their wider support networks) need to prevent them from being criminalised

3. Specific routes into criminalisation and how to safeguard children from these, including protecting them from criminal exploitation, reducing unnecessary police contact, and responding to criminal incidents

4. How to implement the protocol, covering the support services need to do so, and how to use accountability constructively to improve outcomes for children in care and care leavers This will help to inform the government which is currently reviewing the national protocol on reducing unnecessary criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers, as announced by Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy during Care Leavers Month in November.

It is significant that these strategies are increasingly being put into effective practice across the country. The local gatherings at the Wolverhampton Trauma Informed conference, the Leicestershire Virtual School Belonging Strategy Launch and conference and the Merton Virtual School celebration event all provided showcasing opportunities to raise awareness and embed understanding on good, effective, inclusive practice across many educational settings and schools.

The ARC network events continue to prosper and grow. The ARC Primary phase network had their second meeting and benefitted from some really interactive discussions around ‘what works in schools’ including a presentation from ARC Ambassador, Kate Jackson. I am delighted that a further network for the ARC Secondary phase, featured in this newsletter, launches next term, with an ARC Special/AP being planned for the new academic year.

There has been a lot of developments around the ARC tools and resources over the past few months. The ARC Self Evaluation Form (Audit) and ARC Matrix have been reviewed and refined by the ARC Educational Psychology Group. These are now moving to the technical testing phase being piloted by a group of ARC member/partners ready for general use in the new academic year. This will ensure that existing audits and matrices are able to be built upon as schools progress, as well as the integration of the new schools Ofsted framework. Similarly, the ARC HE & Research group have revised all the research documents to be more readily accessed via a new filter system. This too is in its pilot phase ready for the new academic year. These two ARC Forums welcome new members, so if you are an Educational Psycholgists/Psychologist or work in Universities or research and would like to make a contribution please do not hesitate to get in touch at admin@the-arc.org.uk

Finally, I am really excited to highlight the growth in events that ARC continues to grow and promote, bringing the developments to more regions. Please see the full details in this newsletter and I look forward to meeting with you on one or more of these very focussed and interactive events.

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