How London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Education Inclusion Team is using Pupil Pathways to achieve their ‘Best Chance in Life’ strategy through early intervention and reducing exclusions

KEEPING YOUNG CHILDREN IN EDUCATION

The Education Inclusion Team in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham (LBBD) supports schools, families, and young people by promoting engagement in learning and keeping pupils in education.

This aligns with LBBD’s Best Chance in Life strategy, which prioritises:

• Access to high-quality, inclusive local provision that meets children’s needs and reduces absence and exclusion.
• Improved educational outcomes across all key stages, aligned with national standards.

THE NEED FOR A BETTER SYSTEM

In 2022 Pupil Pathways was awarded a contract to help London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) develop a case/risk management system to enable schools and the local authority (LA) to work together more efficiently to help keep children in education.

The aim: to help schools and the LA to work more efficiently to reduce exclusions, support attendance and deliver on LBBD’s Best Chance in Life strategy.

From this partnership, Foresight was created. The platform enables schools and LAs to proactively identify and support pupils at risk of persistent absence or behavioural issues.

Foresight was rolled out borough-wide in 2024, alongside Pupil Pathways’ existing transition tool, SixIntoSeven, which LBBD has used since 2023 to manage the Y6 to Y7 transition securely.

The team also works to meet new government guidance requiring local authorities to rigorously track attendance data and take a targeted approach to support.

We spoke to Exclusion Lead David Bottrill to find out more about the positive impact that Pupil Pathways services have had for the inclusion team.

“We focus on early intervention to reduce suspensions, exclusions, and improve attendance. By working closely with the community, we ensure children’s education needs are identified and supported.”

THE CHALLENGE

Lack of information and poor collaboration

Before Foresight, LBBD struggled with inconsistent, spreadsheet-based data sharing, leading to errors, lost information, and even GDPR concerns. Key pupil data often failed to reach the right people in time, particularly damaging during transition or when managing attendance and behaviour issues.

This lack of visibility made it difficult for LBBD to meet both their strategic goals and new government guidance requiring rigorous local attendance tracking.

High-quality information shared at the right time with the right people

The map function and Pupil Pathways Lite, a free tool for neighbouring authorities, also ensure smoother collaboration when children move in or out of the borough, safeguarding continuity of care.

Pupil Pathways has given LBBD the structure and consistency their teams and schools needed to share pupil information in a streamlined, secure way.

This has transformed how the Inclusion Team works freeing up time previously spent wrangling spreadsheets to focus on strategic, high-impact interventions.

THE OUTCOME

The accessibility, quality and quantity of the information provided by Pupil Pathways has created space for the Inclusion Team in LBBD to undertake more strategic, high-impact activity working with schools, parents, SENCOs and case workers to start early conversations and set action plans to ensure that all parties are working together effectively to achieve their shared goals.

In the 2023-24 academic year, Pupil Pathways helped LBBD support:

• Collaboration increase between 45 primary and 17 secondary schools
• Smooth Y6-Y7 transition for 3,768 children Targeted planning for 1,040 vulnerable pupils, including 662 with SEND (624 flagged by the system requiring additional attention for transition)

The team at LBBD have demonstrated real leadership in their approach to using the data made available to them by Pupil Pathways, demonstrating the power of using good information to make tangible impact on pupils’ lives and create best practice across the LA.

Attendance
With clearer data, schools and the LA can now easily identify patterns of persistent absence, put tailored attendance action plans in place and support Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA). Virtual school heads can now monitor vulnerable groups and intervene early.

Transition
SixIntoSeven has enhanced the quality and safety of pupil handovers. Information now follows the child, even if they change school after appeal. The Transition Watch List highlights pupils at risk of absence before September, helping secondary schools prepare earlier.