Working within the Learning Support Delivery Model
The Ministry’s Learning Support Delivery Model (LSDM) aims to strengthen how learning support is provided so that all mokopuna get the right support, in the right place, at the right time. He Pikorua provides a framework that supports us as practitioners to deliver learning support services within the LSDM.
About the Learning Support Delivery Model (LSDM)
The Learning Support Delivery Model organises learning support based on the needs of local mokopuna, their whānau and community.
Clusters of local schools, Māori medium kura, early learning services, and Kōhanga Reo work together to meet the needs of their community. Each cluster looks for flexible ways to identify and respond to local learning support needs. The cluster works with the Ministry, RTLB and other learning support providers and agencies to decide how best to use available resources.
Whānau are central to decision-making. Their knowledge and skills are valued, and seen as critical to successfully supporting mokopuna. Support is provided in ways that reflect their identity, language, culture and needs.
A Learning Support facilitator supports and promotes joint decision-making and planning, to make sure that the right people are brought together, and the right services are accessed at the right time.
From the beginning of 2020, new Learning Support Coordinators (LSCs) were introduced in New Zealand schools to help implement the LSDM. LSCs work with the Ministry, RTLB, and other agencies and providers to identify local need for learning support, and decide how to best use resources in their local community. Resources include those provided by the Ministry, RTLB, other government agencies, iwi and service providers. Schools not already allocated an LSC can still take part in the LSDM. They can collaborate with other schools to make local decisions about how best to support mokopuna with learning support needs in their community. This work does not depend on an LSC allocation.
The LSDM moves away from a criteria-based referral system for each service towards a needs-based system for requesting support. RTLB and Ministry specialists work together to meet need in a more flexible way. This change enables the following benefits.
Benefits of the LSDM
Professionals work together in a coordinated way, so services and supports within and across sectors can be gathered around the whānau, to better support them and their goals and aspirations for their mokopuna.
A flexible and responsive approach enables timely, high-quality support to be provided when and where needed. Examples are, during transitions between and within early learning services, schools and Māori medium kura.
Practitioners can offer expertise and collaborate across all levels of the tiered support model to support early learning services, schools and Māori medium kura. Examples are building universal supports across a learning environment, or implementing targeted and individualised supports for mokopuna.
The model supports practitioners to work earlier with whānau, early learning services, schools and Māori medium kura in a proactive and positive way. Practitioners can strengthen the confidence and capability of adults around the mokopuna to problem-solve in identified areas of need and intervention.
Responses align more strongly with recognising the adults around the mokopuna as the key agents of change, and strengthening their capability to support the goals and aspirations for their mokopuna. Collaborative teams consider where specialist skills and expertise can most usefully support successful outcomes for mokopuna and their whānau.
A high-quality, flexible approach provides a continuum of support that ranges from advice and guidance at a universal level, to more targeted and individualised support. The focus is on promoting outcomes that impact positively on the well-being of mokopuna, whānau, and education settings.