The 5P Approach Special Interest Group Meeting 6th February 2017 - summary

The first 5P Approach Special Interest Group (the 5P SIG) was held at the British Psychological Society Offices, London on Monday 6th February 2017

Attendees on the day included Special School staff and managers, Outreach staff, Assistant Psychologists & Educational Psychologists.

The aims of the day were:

o   To bring together professionals who are using the 5P Approach Framework or who would like to use it in their work.

o   To provide a platform for the sharing of information & good (5P) practice

o   To revisit the 5P Approach key features, principles & new developments

o   To look at how the 5P approach is used in different settings

o   To provide opportunities for joint discussion & problem-solving

Feedback from all those attending was overwhelmingly positive and everyone thought the day had been very useful.

The morning session comprised a series of short presentations from Linda Miller and a range of professionals using the 5P Approach in different settings.

Linda Miller started off the day by giving an overview of the 5P Approach in 2017, looking at how the Approached is used and how it has developed over time. This included

o   Widening the use of the 5P Approach across age ranges, organisations and from use purely with individuals with ASD to its use with all individuals whatever their needs

o   The updated & expanded record keeping., including the development of a new Profile format, the Individual Green Zone and the Working with Me pack

o   Placing increased emphasis on the two distinct elements of the 5P Approach i.e.  Green Zones (meeting needs) and Tackling the “tricky” situations (problem-solving issues that arise). This also included highlighting the link with “Green” to wellbeing and stressing the importance of the continuing (age appropriate) use of the traffic light colours.

The next presentation was by the London Borough of Havering Educational Psychology Service who explained the process they had used to introduce and establish the 5P Approach across all services in the Borough.

The presentation looked at where they were before the project was started, what they did and how they did it. This began with skilling up their own staff and then moving towards delivering training across the Borough on a regular basis.

The EPS team looked at what worked well, what the issues and barriers were and ended with a summary looking at where they were now. This included a recognition that professionals were using the 5P Approach language and recognising the approach, that 5P Approach plans were used as part of transition process and that Early Years Key Workers were supporting in implementing 5P in the home.

There was a now waiting list for 5P Approach training (provided at real cost) and an increase in requests for whole school training. Moving forward, the team plan to introduce 5P Approach workshops to embed the practice and reinforce the use of Green zone and offer regular 5P consultations to schools and professionals.

This was followed by a presentation from Joe Seiber, Assistant Headteacher at Little Heath School in the London Borough of Redbridge. Joe took us through the process of establishing the 5P Approach in a secondary special school beginning with his personal reflections on the 5P Approach as he took up his post which had a responsibility for embedding 5P in the school.

Coming from an authority where other systems had been used he reflected that as the 5P Approach was a framework he quickly realised that he would not need to leave his “old” knowledge & strategies behind as they could easily be brought into the overall 5P framework.

Joe also looked at the practical and cultural issue of establishing the 5P Approach in his school, the successes and obstacles. In particular he noted the use of the Green Zone in achieving a deeper understanding of needs and causes, the use of the Intervention Hierarchies to target specific and incremental change, replacing “punishment” with learning and establishing a common language for describing behaviour escalation (“He’s at amber”).

The next presentation was from Beverley Power, Senior Deputy Headteacher, Hatton School in the London Borough of Redbridge. Beverley gave details of an Independent Research project - “Evaluation of the 5P Approach” which had been commissioned by the school.

The evaluation into the 5P Approach was carried out by Dr Catherine Carroll, a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Education, University College London, in 2015/2016. There were 4 main questions at the heart of this study:

•      How is 5P implemented across three different types of school settings?

•      How does the 5P approach support pupil learning?

•      How does the 5P approach enable practitioners to better support pupil learning?

•      What should schools consider before/when implementing the programme?

Beverley gave details of how the research was conducted and what the finding were. Findings included

•      That it is a very pupil centred and inclusive approach

It provided tools for the pupils to learn to self-regulate their behaviour – visual cues, common language, knowledge of their own personal strategies and consistency of approach – ‘pupils talk in colours’

•      All participants were very supportive of 5P Approach

•      All were very supportive of the continuing use of 5P Approach in each of the settings.

•      All would recommend the approach to colleagues in other schools.

Recommendations included

•      The need for commitment and leadership from the top

•      Developing self-regulation is an on-going process

•      Discussion and debate is fundamental to the success of the approach.

•      Tensions between mainstream ‘behaviour plans’ and the philosophy of 5P Approach – however exploring these tensions can be a positive process.

 

Louise Miller, trainee Educational Psychologist & 5P Approach Consultant  presented a case study on using the  5P Approach to effect organisational change in a failing SEMH special school. She took us through the process of getting the staff on board in using the 5P Approach and also in changing staff perceptions of both student behaviour and their own behaviour. This involved a series of staff workshops using the traffic light colours as a basis for categorising behaviour (using a video example) and thinking about differing strategies which could be used.  The staff team also looked at where behaviours may have come from and how this reflected in what the students required to ensure positive wellbeing (what should be in their Green Zones).

The second phase of the project was to work with the students and involve them in establishing the 5P Framework tailor made to reflect their own needs and school. Louise prepared a Powerpoint presentation for school staff to use with their classes and began by demonstrating with some class groups.

The final phase was to dovetail the new 5P Approach framework with the school’s behaviour monitoring and reward system.

Feedback from both staff and students was that the 5P framework had supported them to establish a clear whole school structure and a common understanding.

The final presentation of the morning was given by Denise Jacovou and Simon Grayson from Little Belsteads School, Chelmsford looking at Pupil Voice. Denise presented on her experience in her previous post in a school for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties.

The school has been using the 5P Approach for several years and the approach is well established. The next phase was to look at how the pupils could become more involved in the 5P process. This began with the establishment of a Pupil Voice week each term based on the 5P Approach framework. Staff were encouraged to look at ways to support their pupils to contribute to their Green Zone by creating purpose made communication aids. This also included supporting pupils to understand and contribute to what their Amber strategies might be.

As with previous speakers Denise reflected on the need to support staff in changing their perceptions and their role in ensuring pupils needs are met.This included regular individual support for staff and staff training sessions.

Simon Grayson, spoke about his appointment as headteacher to Little Belsteads School which is just being developed and hoping to open this year. Designed as a school for pupils with moderate to severe learning difficulties, including ASD, the school intends to use the 5P Approach as its main framework. The care home on the same site will do the same to ensure consistency & continuity of approach.

Simon talked about his ideas for an electronic communication aid which could display the Green, Amber and Red traffic lights and give an immediate link to the strategy designed for that pupil (for example, if a pupil was at Amber it could indicate that it was time for a walk outside). Early days but an exciting prospect!

The afternoons session was designed to provide opportunities for attendees to share their experiences in using the 5P Approach and look at things that work and any issues that might arise.

The afternoon as divide into two sessions, the first on using the 5P Approach with individuals and the second on working with organisations.  Both sessions were small group activities using the 5P Approach “balloon” as a tool to aid conversation and problem-solving. Attendees were asked to think about “what made 5P fly (what worked well)” GREEN, what might hold it back (RED) and what might blow it off course (AMBER). Taking one example from Amber & Red they were them asked to think of ways these issues could be overcome. These were shared in whole group feedback.

FEEDBACK from those attending was very positive, everyone had enjoyed the day and found the items interesting. All felt they would use the 5P Approach in their work and many would like to undertake more formal training. Those attending thought that sessions like this were very useful and all felt that there should be regular 5P SIGS