DT Networks West

Michelle Cain

Education Adviser Virtual School Hampshire

Agenda

• National and local updates• The new PEP• Pupil Premium• Training opportunities

Results (unvalidated)

KS 1 attaining Level 2+• 62.1 % (all tasks up 2.1% on 2013)

KS 2 attaining L4+• 57.1% reading, writing and mathematics (up 7.1% on

2013 and above 2013 national average)

KS4 attaining 5 GCSEs A*- C including Englishand mathematics– 16.9% (Up 7.6% on 2013 - Highest to date and above

2013 national average)

20092010 87 children

20102011 106 children

20112012 88 children

20122013 107 children

20132014 77 children

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

100.00%

Year 11 % CiC achieving/not achieving 5+ A*-C inc EM

% achieving 5+A*-C inc EM

% not achieving 5+A*-C inc EM

What do you think are the reasons for the gap?

The Issues and our collective mission

• Expectations• Knowing the child and understanding needs• Meeting needs• Pedagogy

Anwen Foy

VS HT

Attached HIAS Inspectors

Helen Fenton

Bernard Cooper

Sue Savory

Glyn Wright

Rachel Allen

Education Adviser -East

Julia Hodgson

Education Officer - East

2 EWOs

Lisa Martin

Trudi Taylor

Michelle Cain

Education Adviser -West

Barbara Steward

Education officer -West

2 EWOs

Fiona Smith

IndiraJayawardena

DHT

To be appointed

Contact

Amy Oakley

Administrative Officer Children's Services Department Hampshire County Council 4th Floor EII Court NorthWinchester Hampshire   SO23 8UG

Tel. 01962-835229Fax 01962-846380 amy.oakley@hants.gov.uk

Janet Cox Senior Administrative Officer Children's Services DepartmentHampshire County Council 4th Floor EII Court NorthWinchester Hampshire   SO23 8UG

Tel. 01962-835227Fax 01962-846380 janet.cox@hants.gov.uk

Website

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/practitioners-information/cic-virtual-school.htm

Promoting the education of looked after children

Statutory guidance for local authorities

July 2014

Contents • Summary • Key points • Supporting all looked after children • High-level responsibilities • Implementing the duty • Giving the child a voice • Working with others • Supporting schools • Pupil premium • Information sharing • Training for those involved in the care and education of looked after children • Supporting individual children • Securing appropriate education • School admissions • School exclusions • Special educational needs • The Personal Education Plan (PEP) • PEP content • Initiating, developing and reviewing the PEP • Supporting transitions from care

Statutory Guidance - Supporting schools

To implement effectively their duty to promote the educational achievement of the children they look after local authorities should work closely with schools. To this end the VSH should ensure that: • schools in their authority and their governing bodies understand a local authority’s

duty as a corporate parent to promote a looked after child’s educational achievement and the main reasons why, as a group, looked after children underachieve

• school governing bodies understand the importance of specific professional development for, as a minimum, their senior leaders and designated teachers in supporting the achievement of looked after children

• schools understand the powerful role they can play in significantly improving the quality of life and the educational experiences of looked after children

• an up-to-date list of designated teachers is maintained to assist with their own internal communications and networking but also to assist other authorities that have placed children within the authority

• where a looked-after child attends school, that the child’s social worker makes the designated teacher aware that the child is looked after and that the designated teacher has an up-to-date copy of each child’s PEP on admission and after each statutory review of the care plan

Statutory Guidance cont.

• The VSH should be aware of the requirements on school governing bodies to appoint a designated teacher for looked after children. They should have an understanding of the policies that schools in their area have in place to support the education of looked after children.

• The VSH should make schools aware of their responsibility to ensure that designated teachers have had the appropriate training to undertake their role as set out in the statutory guidance for governing bodies on the role of the designated teacher for looked after children.

• The VSH should offer training and advice to schools. This should enable schools to understand that looked after children, including those who remain looked after but have been placed for adoption, are not a homogenous group and that their individual needs will be different.

Statutory Guidance - The PEP

• The designated teacher leads on how the PEP is developed and used in school to make sure the child’s progress towards education targets is monitored.

The PEP – VSH Quality assurance role

To be an effective and high quality PEP it should: • be a ‘living’, evolving, comprehensive and enduring record of the child’s experience,

progress and achievement (academic and otherwise) and inform any discussion about education during the statutory review of the child’s wider care plan;

• be linked to, but not duplicate or conflict with, information in any other plans held by the child’s education setting;

• identify developmental (including any related to attachment) and educational needs (short and longer term) in relation to skills, knowledge, subject areas and experiences;

• include SMART short-term targets, including progress monitoring of each of the areas identified against development and educational needs;

• include SMART longer-term plans for educational targets and aspirations. These should, according to age and understanding, typically focus on public examinations, further and higher education, managing money and savings, work experience and career plans and aspirations

• identify actions, with time scales, for specific individuals intended to support the achievement of agreed targets and use of any additional resources (e.g. the pupil premium) specifically designated to support the attainment of looked after children

• highlight access to effective intervention strategies and how this will make/has made a difference to achievement levels

Statutory Guidance - The PEP cont.

VSHs should make arrangements for PEPs to be reviewed each school term. This is to ensure that the story of the child’s educational progress is current and continues to meet the child’s educational needs. It is also to ensure that information from the PEP is available to feed into the next statutory review of the wider Care plan. The nature of these arrangements and who to involve are for the VSH to decide in partnership with others.

The PEP

• http://www3.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/practitioners-information/cic-virtual-school.htm

See VSH Website – PEP Guidance P5-6

The New PEP

• Feedback• Developments• SDQ/Care plan• Needs Analysis• Target setting• Funding• Impact

Corporate Parenting• Ensuring the right services are in place at the right

time

• Explaining their decisions concerning the allocation of resources

• Reviewing and evaluating how effective their services are, taking into account the views of all those who are using them

• Assessing whether they continue to meet changing need.

Specific IRO/IRS Functions

Core Functions IRO Monitoring Functions• Chairing the child’s review

• Monitoring the child’s care on an ongoing basis

• Duty to monitor the performances of the LA function on Corporate Parent

• Identify any areas of poor practice

• Offer a safeguard to prevent any drift in the care of the child

The Care Plan

Responsibilities of the IRO are to:

• evaluate whether the Care Plan meets the child’s needs

• decide whether the Care Plan is fair and reasonable to the child

• decide whether or not to endorse all or part of the Care Plan

• decide what actions in principle are necessary to carry it out.

Guiding Principles for Reviewing Children Looked After

• “The primary task of the IRO is to ensure that the Care Plan for the child fully reflects the Childs current needs and that the action set out in the plan are consistent with the local authorities legal responsibilities towards the child”

• It will be important for the social worker to provide for the IRO the evidence on which the plan was formulated. E.g. copies of assessments or minutes of meetings.

IRO Handbook 2010.

Best Provision Protocol

http://documents.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/BestProvisionProtocolSeptember2014.pdf

Suitable education placement

Discussed and informed decision making

Meeting the needs of all Looked after Children.

LA Statutory Guidance - Pupil premium

• Looked after children are one of the groups of pupils that attract pupil premium funding. Local authorities receive a pupil premium grant allocation based on the number of children looked after for at least one day and aged 4 to 15 at 31 August as recorded in

• This is additional funding provided to help improve the attainment of looked after children and close the attainment gap between this group and their peers.

• VSHs, working with education settings, should implement pupil premium arrangements for looked after children in accordance with the latest conditions of grant published by the department and any supplementary departmental advice it issues.

Pupil Premium Funding

• Intended for LAC to attain good education outcomes

• As of April 1st 2014 the management and allocation of the pupil premium for LAC became the responsibility of the Virtual School Head Teacher.

• In 2014/15 all schools with a Hampshire LAC on roll will receive £1500 pupil premium grant per LAC

• £600 in the summer term, £500 in the autumn term and £400 in the spring term

DSG

• In addition schools will continue to receive £1983 per LAC in DSG funding included within their budget share.

• The arrangements for re-distributing funding, should a child or young person leave part way through the term to join another school or education setting, is still a local decision between schools although it is expected that the funding will follow the child or young person.

Training and support

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/education/htlc.htm • DT Networks• Action research• Bespoke support for schools• Bookable EP consultations