Our pastoral support within school ensures the physical and emotional welfare of our children and their families.

When we use the term ‘family’ we are referring to the basic social unit of parents and their child, whether dwelling together or not. Inclusive of step parents, carers, grandparents and extended family. 

Our early help offer has developed in line with demand and in conjunction with Esteem.

The pastoral team at Holbrook School for Autism consists of Kelly Thorne as the Pastoral and Safeguarding Lead, working Monday – Thursday and Gemma Farrell who is the Family Support Worker and works Tuesday – Friday. This offer is primarily ‘earliest’ help and ensures that family and student issues that arise on a daily basis can be resolved quickly and efficiently by a member of staff that has an in-depth knowledge of their needs and condition. Working closely with Esteem it also gives school the ability to now refer any tier two issues through the Multi Academy Trust – Esteem who allocate cases accordingly. 

All tier three and immediate safeguarding concerns are advanced as before through social care.

As a school we are also holding a safeguarding day once every half term where there will be a break from normal timetables and the day will have a safeguarding focus in order for the whole school to receive an appropriate level of input from outside agencies.

Welcome to the Esteem Family and Student Support Team (FASST) service.

​We are a team of dedicated and skilled Family and Student Support Workers based at Esteem academies across Derbyshire, Derby City and Staffordshire. We are part of Esteem Multi-Academy Trust; and while safeguarding is at the core of our provision, we are not a specialist safeguarding and child protection service.

​We are trained and skilled at delivering a range of group and 1:1 support sessions designed to support families and young people who recognise that change is required.

We only work with families and young people currently on role at an Esteem academy who have consented to the referral. This ensures that positive changes are made with people and not to, or for them.

​We offer young people and their families solution focused support to overcome challenges and hurdles. This support can be family or community based or 1:1 sessions. We understand the challenging role of being a parent or carer and trying to balance supporting young people with managing the everyday demands of being an adult!

​We use a holistic and flexible approach to empower families and young people to be increasingly self-sufficient. We will work collaboratively with our education colleagues and those from specialist services to ensure the right service at the right time.

We are trained to deliver HOPE, a project that delivers positive outcomes for young people that have an emotional need for support. This service is well established across schools in Staffordshire and we are really pleased to be introducing it to all of our Esteem academies.

​We are able to accept referrals from our Esteem colleagues, parents and carers, young people and other professionals. We hold panel meetings to determine that we are the correct service and allocate to the most appropriate member of the team. The panel is made up of our team and representatives from education and health services; this ensures consistency and multi agency decision making. If we are not the right service to help, we will endeavour to find the one who is.

​For further information about our service, signposting to various support groups and activities available in your area, visit the FASST website.