Supporting Service Children in Education (SSCE) Cymru has launched a new Service Family Guide with the aim of providing information on education and living in Wales and the support that is available to schools, parents/ carers and Service children.

Kirsty Williams MS, who served as Minister for Education in the Welsh Government, committed to identifying Service children, but there was no formal mechanism for this data collection process. SSCE Cymru started working with the Welsh Government, and liaised with Blesma and many other partners in Wales, to arrange for a question to be added to the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC).

Regional School Liaison Officers (RSLO) were appointed and have been working with all 22 local authorities in Wales to conduct a data collection activity, providing a snapshot of data as of 01 March 2021 (a heatmap is available on the SSCE Cymru website). The RSLOs are working with local authorities to establish how they plan to maintain this data in the future.

Blesma has been quick to act throughout the COVID-19 crisis, and social distancing has, of course, also had a major impact on the Making Generation R programme, which sees Blesma Members tell their stories of New SSCE Cymru Service Family Guide launched S overcoming adversity in schools across the nation. With schools closed, and teachers looking to online resources, students at home found that resilience was needed more than ever. Blesma Wales and West linked SSCE up with the Making Generation R team to help with the free digital resilience resource; available for all secondary schools in the UK.

The structure and content of the Service Family Guide was developed based on the findings of the SSCE Cymru parent/carer survey findings report. Content for the guide was produced with the support of the SSCE Cymru network to ensure the most relevant and accurate information was provided.

The SSCE Cymru Service Family Guide includes the following sections: – Service children’s experiences – Armed Forces in Wales – Living in Wales – Education in Wales – School admissions and term-time absence – Health, wellbeing and ALN – School support

The tools within the guide can be helpful to all Service children and their families across the UK. The guide can be found at https://www.sscecymru.co.uk/ toolkits/servicefamilyguide