Long term partnership secures the future for vulnerable children in Cornwall.

9 September 2020

A new long-term partnership between Together for Families, part of Cornwall Council, and the Wave Trust has been established to support Cornwall’s children and schools.

   

Under the terms of the new 10-year contract the Council and Wave will work together in partnership to support those children who are at risk of exclusion or for those pupils who have already been permanently excluded from school. 

The emphasis of the partnership will be to promote inclusive practice in all schools, as well as developing new strategies for supporting children to remain in mainstream schooling who may be deemed at risk of exclusion. 

In addition to the 10-year contract the Council and Wave have also entered into a 2-year agreement to provide education for pupils who are not able to attend school due to medical or health reasons and education services for the Sowenna Inpatient unit for young people.

 Welcoming the new contract, Wave CEO Rob Gasson said “The Wave team works very hard to ensure that we are providing the highest quality education for all our pupils. We are determined to do ‘whatever it takes’ to improve outcomes for our pupils and change their lives for the better.

 

 “This long-term commitment is a recognition of the high quality of education available to the most vulnerable and challenging children in Cornwall through Wave and the Council’s Education Services.  By working together to provide timely and effective support, we can reduce the number of pupils excluded from school in the first place, as well as supporting those who have been excluded back into mainstream or special education provision, the world of work or into further education.”


Cabinet Member for Children, Health and Well Being Sally Hawken said “We are delighted to be continuing to work with the Wave Trust to provide alternative education provision services for some of Cornwall’s most vulnerable children. 

 

“They have a proven track record of work in this field, being recognised as Outstanding by Ofsted at numerous locations in the country for their alternative education provision.  Which makes them ideal partners for our team to support young people in Cornwall.”

Wave currently runs six academies based in Cornwall, four academies based in Devon, and the Community and Hospital Education Service (CHES) & Torlands based across three centres in Devon and Cornwall. 

 “We recognise that each child learns differently and use a range of methods to ensure that we can tailor our approach to their individual strengths.  Our proven approach has been to provide a broad and balanced curriculum which enables all children to succeed " said Rob Gasson.  

 “At a time when many councils are taking a short term funding focused approach to providing this work, it is fantastic to see Cornwall leading the way in developing long term strategies which will support families and schools in meeting the needs of vulnerable children in Cornwall and equipping them with the skills for both education and for life”.

 Ends

Notes to editors :

Wave Trust provides education for students across the whole of Cornwall and Devon who are excluded from school or who are not in school for medical reasons.

The main provider of Alternative Provision education in Cornwall, Wave has been providing the service since 1st June 2013, initially as Acorn Academy Cornwall following the academisation of the PRUs, and as Wave MAT from the 1st June 2018.

Wave currently has 346 staff and supports 437 pupils in Cornwall and 334 in Devon.