Pupil Behaviour Tracking Software in SEND

Working with SEND pupils can be very rewarding; however, it is not without its challenges and chief amongst these is managing challenging or dysregulated behaviour. Many specialist provision schools work hard to develop and refine systems and routines over time that work for them. These systems will often include language or actions which are highly specific to that particular setting and which are shaped by the nature and needs of the pupils. This can represent a barrier to SEN schools moving to an on-line behaviour tracking system, many of which are designed mainly for larger, mainstream settings..

Procurement:

How much data do you need? The starting point for procuring a suitable monitoring system is to consider carefully what data you want to collect. In addition to the obvious 4Ws (who, what, when and where) schools working with an ABC (antecedent, behaviour, consequence) model will also want to record what happened immediately before the event and what happened afterwards. However, this can be just the tip of the iceberg; schools may wish to expand the setting events to include other factors such as pupil mood or nature of the environment (noisy, calm, hot etc). Many will record the use of any de-escalation or calming strategies used during an incident. Such data can be very useful for informing individual pupil strategy planning. Schools using positive handling will need to record the details of any physical intervention. Make a list of all the information that you would like or need to collect. A good system will collect at least most of the data that you need.

Cloud or local hosting? A key consideration to be addressed early on is how the software will be delivered and what are the longer-term maintenance and cost implications. Software systems can be installed on individual machines or on a central server in school. However, most providers now offer their software via the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, i.e. as an online application. SaaS solutions can be accessed from anywhere and there is nothing to install or maintain in school. This solution is well suited to small schools with limited IT support. Remember to check the procedure for updates and bug fixes and ask whether there are any upgrade costs involved. If possible speak to an existing user to ask about their experiences.

All-in-one application? Another consideration is whether or not you want to have all your pupil information in one place. A system that can equally record and manage a range of information may also be important to you. Are you happy to have separate, dedicated systems for recording other information such as accidents and injuries, contacts with parents, child protection concerns and so on, or would you prefer to have just one single system which logs everything?

Do you need a custom setup? Look for a system that is both customisable and flexible enough to monitor all the details that are important to you. Look for potential solutions which are flexible and customisable enough to be able to accommodate your existing language, workflow and routines – as well as offering the opportunity to develop new and innovative ways of working. With this in mind, think about whether the proposed solution is fitting your needs or whether you are being required to fit with the needs of the system. You should consider changing your established way of working only if the proposed solution has the potential to provide something better.

Can you change the setup? Also, consider whether the proposed system is flexible enough to be easily modified should your needs change. What happens if you change your intervention techniques from MAPA or SKIPr to Team Teach for example? What if your new intake of pupils has a different set of needs? How easily and to what extent can the system be modified to match the school’s changing needs? Always check whether any additional cost is involved in making changes to the system.

Link to your MIS? Consider whether the capability to take staff and pupil details from the school MIS system, like SIMS or Integris, is important to you. This will make set up of the new software quicker and removes the need to manually enter information that already exists. Some solutions will offer a live link with your MIS, refreshing the data daily. This may only be important to you if you have a high turnover of pupils. All solutions should be able to accept a bulk upload of staff an student data via an Excel file or similar.

Do you need alerts and notifications? Effective internal communication between staff is a key consideration in SEN settings and can often be dependent on hit-and-miss email, verbal or written procedures. But a good online monitoring platform should provide secure, reliable sharing of information. Things to consider in this respect include:

ensuring that each user sees only information that is relevant to them. How are access levels managed, how easy is it to control who has access to what parts of the system?
is the system fully journalled? It is important to have full transparency regarding safeguarding, accident and physical intervention records. Check that all entries and edits to records are logged. You should be able to see what has changed, who changed it and when. You should also be to see any previous versions of records which have been edited.
the information being shared is current. Look for systems that readily provide the evidence you need, not only to inform the pupils’ behaviour management plans, but also have the ability to monitor any changes in pupil behaviour in real-time.
school leaders can be alerted automatically to key events happening on the system. Ask to what extent the alerts can be customised or changed to suit your needs.

Benefits:

Implementing the right software system should make recording and monitoring of pupil incidents easier and not more difficult for the staff. If the new system does not save time or effort over the existing system, if it’s ‘clunky’ or difficult to use then busy teaching staff will be resistant to it; so make sure whatever system you choose is fast, efficient and robust. The benefits of an effective system can be significant and include:

reduced admin costs.
improved effectiveness and efficiency of school leaders.
better staff communication,
time saving for class teams
better quality information to inform pupil and school planning

A key feature of an effective incident monitoring system is its ability to quickly and easily give feedback to teachers regarding reported incidents. Giving teachers feedback on incidents they have logged makes them feel listened to, engenders team spirit and increases staff ‘buy-in’ to the system. Look for a system which allows school leaders to simply and easily communicate action taken back to the class teacher.

Analysis:

Specialist SEN schools will log pupil incidents more diligently and in more detail than in mainstream schools. This has traditionally been done via detailed printed sheets or in bound and numbered books. This usually results in the school being very rich in data but poor in useful information, as extracting useful information from pages of handwritten accounts is a time-consuming and tedious process. Many incident recording systems will allow easy entry of data but getting it out again in a usable form is not always as easy. Look for a system that combines powerful analysis tools with ease of use. Can behaviour leads and school managers interrogate and search the data easily themselves at any time, or do they have to wait for office staff to print out reports for them? One of the key advantages of a good data management is its ability to allow access to live information. Check that this is not going to be compromised by a poor data retrieval routine. Make sure that any proposed system will allow you to easily identify pupils with high numbers of incidents and gives a breakdown of behaviour type, antecedents, triggers and effective calming strategies as an absolute minimum. It should also, as a minimum, identify hot spots by location, activity or time of day, plot trend graphs, and provide a readily searchable database.

Support:

The ready availability, or otherwise, of support can be key consideration for some. When choosing a supplier make sure to establish clearly the nature, type and extent of support available and whether any additional cost is involved. Is support limited to a printed or online user guide or discussion board? Some providers will only accept support calls via contact forms on their website; others are happy to accept emails and telephone calls. Also, establish what the estimated response times for support are. Are you happy to wait days or weeks for a response to a call? The quality of support can vary widely so it’s always a good idea to speak to some existing users of the system if you can.

Finally, next time you review your school’s behaviour management policy, ask yourself: what is its aim? Is it achieving that aim? What do we need to change? Can the outcomes be improved by using a good IT based monitoring solution?

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