Admissions are reserved for children who are currently resident in the London Borough of Camden.
Children come to Robson House in one of three ways:
- as a result of placement by Camden’s Special Educational Needs Team
- through a managed move agreed by Camden’s Primary Inclusion Forum
- following a permanent exclusion from a mainstream school
All transfers are overseen by Camden’s Primary Inclusion Forum.
For permanent exclusions, the Local Authority (LA) must arrange suitable full-time education for pupils resident in Camden to begin no later than the sixth day of the exclusion. A place at Robson House will therefore be offered to children who have been permanently excluded from mainstream school. However, the close collaboration between Camden’s mainstream schools and the LA in supporting children with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) difficulties means that very few children are placed at Robson House under these circumstances.
The LA strategy for all Camden children with SEMH needs is that these children have their needs met locally within provision that supports them in becoming independent and achieving positive outcomes within their local community.
The LA’s commitment to making local provision for children who may previously have been placed out of borough requires support from all local schools to meet the needs of the majority of pupils with SEMH difficulties in mainstream settings, with Robson House offering specialist provision for children with the most severe and complex SEMH difficulties.
The process of allocation of places at Robson House is designed to be transparent and equitable. It seeks to identify those children whose needs cannot be met in mainstream settings. Therefore, most children are placed at Robson House as a result of statutory processes governing the support for children with special educational needs (SEN): this involves on-going high-level support in mainstream school including additional support provided through an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Usually allocation of a place at Robson House will be through a review of the EHCP, where a judgement is reached that a child requires alternative specialist provision.
Click here to contact Camden’s Special Educational Needs Team
However, there are occasions when this process cannot be followed, for example when children with severe SEMH difficulties come on to the roll of mainstream schools from out of borough and without prior information to indicate their true level of need.
Requests for a managed move to Robson House for children who do not have an EHCP should be sent to Camden’s School Inclusion Team. These requests will be considered by Camden’s Primary Inclusion Forum. In these cases a range of factors are considered by the Forum, for example:
- whether the child has significant needs that have persisted over time
- whether the child’s current school has used their own resources over time to meet the child’s needs
- whether the school has consulted appropriate external agencies (e.g. Robson House Outreach, Educational Psychology, CAMHS) and incorporated their advice into the child’s Behaviour Support Plan
- whether the child’s response to intervention (set out in the Behaviour Support Plan and monitored over time) has shown limited progress
- whether external professionals concur with the school’s view that the child’s needs cannot currently be met in a mainstream setting
Click here to contact Camden’s School Inclusion Team
A managed move to Robson House can only take place with the agreement of the parent/carer. In order for the parent or carer to agree to a managed move, they will need to have visited Robson House and received sufficient information to give informed consent.