Making the hole square
Janine Pinion
Specialist support tutor for mental health,
Wirral Metropolitan College
A life in the day Volume 8 Issue 2 May 2004 © Pavilion
9
People say they come to college for all sorts of
reasons – to continue on from school, to prepare
for university, to train for a vocation, to pursue
an interest in their spare time. But underlying
these obvious goals are two basic human needs –
to develop potential and to have social contact
with a peer group.
Like all colleges today, Wirral Metropolitan
College has a policy of inclusion. Since the mid-
90s its support for students with additional
learning needs has gone through many changes
and developments and is now a major feature
within the college provision. Specialist support
tutors ensure students with sensory impairment,
physical difficulties, dyslexia and mental ill
health get a fair deal at college by assessing their
individual requirements and devising and
implementing an individual learning support
plan. Additional support tutors provide extra
tutorial time for key skills and coursework, and a
team of learning support assistants can be
allocated to students during classes and lectures
where they may, for example, act as note-takers,
provide focus and encouragement or teach
organisational skills.
Charlie Houlbrook and I share the role of
specialist support tutor for mental health.
Originally a full-time post created back in 1997,
it fell victim to cutbacks during the college’s
restructuring less than a year later and was only
fully reinstated in 2000. This reflects the erratic
process within the college of accepting and
prioritising the needs of students with mental ill
health. Despite the accepted figure of 25% of the
UK population experiencing some degree of
mental ill health at some time in their lives, and
20% of those under 25 at any given time,
provision for mental health support is still far
short of ideal, particularly in terms of facilities.
But the quality of that support is excellent,
students who request support get it, and the fact
that the mental health post exists at all is
testimony that college management have
acknowledged this need.
Developing positive
approaches
Charlie is optimistic. ‘Society is changing,’ he
says, ‘albeit slowly. I would like to see education
as an agent of that change. How do you fit a
square peg into a round hole? Answer: you make
the hole square.’
Staff development is a significant aspect of
the post – part of making the hole square. Most
tutors want to get it right, some get over-
involved, some are scared, some feel they have
enough stress on their plates without having to
cope with the kind of adjustments required by
the recent inclusion of education in part 4 of the
Disability Discrimination Act (since September
2002). Most of this development takes place
informally, often when a tutor refers a student for
support. The tutor will be concerned about the
student’s well-being and will want to know how
best they can help. We can give advice and
information. If the student has requested an
appointment for additional support it will be
arranged directly with them. In addition there are
two compulsory staff development days each
Janine Pinion maps the road travelled so far in creating a helpful environment for students with mental
health problems (and the staff who support them) at Wirral Metropolitan College.
Education