5.2.7 Education of Looked After Children |
SCOPE OF THIS CHAPTER
This guidance applies to all Looked After Children.
It should be read in conjunction with the Promoting the Educational Achievement of Looked After Children Procedure and Education of Looked After Children Procedure
Contents
- The Personal Education Plan (PEP)
- When a Child First becomes Looked After
- When a Child Moves into a New Local Authority
- When a Child Joins a New School
- When a Child has No School Place
- Celebrating Success
- Reviewing and Updating PEPs
- School Exclusions
- When a Child is Absent from School
- When a Young Woman becomes Pregnant
- Responsibilities of Social Workers Concerning the Promotion of Education
- Responsibilities of Carers Concerning the Promotion of Education
- Responsibilities of RBKC Education Department
1. The Personal Education Plan (PEP)
What is a PEP for?
Looked After Children’s carers, social workers, teachers and schools may well change several times during their time in education.
The PEP should:
- be a secure, reliable and accessible record of a child’s education history;
- be a record of the child’s interest in and commitment to education;
- ensure that promoting a Looked After Child’s education is seen not as one person’s or one agency’s responsibility but as a cooperative venture;
- make tangible and useful improvements to the child’s experience of, and achievements and attainments in, education.
PEPs and other education plans
A Looked After Child may have a statement of SEN, an Individual Education Plan (IEP), personal targets, a Pastoral Support Plan or other education plans.
The PEP should refer to and incorporate these as much as possible, rather than replace or ignore them. It is often possible to synchronise PEP meetings with other plans and reviews.
However, none of these other plans can be seen as a substitute for a PEP as they do not achieve a PEP’s purposes as outlined above.
Initiating PEPs, chairing meetings
The social worker is responsible for initiating and compiling PEPs.
When a child is attending school, the school’s Designated Teacher or other identified member of staff is also responsible for ensuring that a child has a PEP.
PEP meetings should usually be chaired by the social worker as the PEP forms part of the Care Plan. RBKC’s LAC Education workers may chair some meetings, by agreement; and will provide advice and guidance notes about chairing a PEP meeting.
If the PEP meeting is organised to coincide with (for example) an annual review of a statement or the drawing up of an IEP, the social worker should agree with other participants in advance how responsibility for the meeting is to be shared.
Recording
The Integrated Children’s System (ICS) will require a PEP to be added to part of the child’s Care Plan. In the meantime, a Word version of the PEP should be attached to LACMON. A PEP consists of the Education Information Sheet (information about key education contacts, attendance, attainment and achievements etc.), a summary of the views of all concerned plus the Decisions and Recommendations resulting from the PEP meeting. Copies of solution-focused preparatory materials should be kept as paper files.
A PEP must be based on accurate and up-to-date information. Everyone relevant should be consulted about both their views and their ability to contribute to the child’s educational progress.
The cycle – PEPs and Overall Care Plans
PEPs are one element of the Overall Care Plan and must be made, reviewed and updated to the same cycle (28 days, three months and then six-monthly). These intervals can and should be reduced if the child’s educational needs or circumstances change significantly.
The PEP cycle is ongoing: the collection of information feeds into the planning meeting which agrees the necessary actions; the Decisions and Recommendations need to be implemented and their progress monitored in the interval between PEP meetings.
Who needs a PEP?
Every Looked After Child of compulsory school age. PEPs should cover address education from the time of joining a Reception class to the end of Year 11.
Once a young person has completed Year 11, education planning should be part of the Pathway Plan.
In time there will be an age-appropriate PEP for pre-school children.
2. When a Child First becomes Looked After
Notification
Lead Officers for LAC in Education and Family Services in every local authority can be found at the Department for Children, Schools and Families website
The First Personal Education Plan – non-residential schools
Schools and their staff vary widely in their knowledge and understanding about PEPs, and in their willingness and ability to participate in making them. It is advisable to establish the situation as it applies to each relevant school staff member.
If at all possible, the social worker and carer or residential worker should make informal contact with appropriate school staff in the manner of good parents, before attempting to draw up a PEP.
The First Personal Education Plan – residential schools & educational placements
In residential settings every effort should be made to give educational matters as much time and attention as care arrangements. Attainment and achievement should always be addressed, even when behaviour management or other issues are the immediate priority.
3. When a Child Moves into a New Local Authority
Applying for a mainstream school place
Before applying for a school place, contact RBKC’s LAC Education workers for advice about how Looked After Children might receive preferential treatment from admissions authorities.
Pupils With Statements of Special Educational Needs
The procedures and regulations applying to pupils with statements of SEN are complex and can involve lengthy delays.
No changes of school or similar significant changes to a pupil’s education can be made without amending the statement. A statement may need to be transferred from one LEA to another when a child moves.
It is advisable to contact RBKC’s LAC Education workers or RBKC’s Head of SEN and Additional Needs for advice, well in advance of the need to make such decisions.
4. When a Child Joins a New School
The First PEP in a new school
(See also Section 2, When a Child First Becomes Looked After above) The first PEP should be regarded primarily as the beginning of a working relationship between the pupil, the school, the social worker, the carer or residential worker and (if appropriate) members of the pupil’s family.
Pressing educational needs (e.g. the pupil’s ability to communicate with school staff and other pupils, behaviour management etc.) should be addressed in this first PEP but others should be dealt with in greater detail at the second and subsequent PEP meetings (see Section 7, Reviewing and Updating PEPS).
5. When a Child has No School Place
Children Placed Outside RBKC
Local authority contacts for the whole country can be found at the Department for Children, Schools and Families website
Pupils With Statements of Special Educational Needs
The procedures and regulations applying to pupils with statements of SEN are complex and can involve lengthy delays.
No applications to schools can be made without amending the statement and a statement may need to be transferred from one LEA to another when a child moves.
It is advisable to contact RBKC’s LAC Education workers or RBKC’s head of SEN and Additional Needs for advice, well in advance of the need to make such decisions.
Residential placements providing education for LAC with statements are usually jointly funded with RBKC’s SEN section . RBKC’s Head of SEN and Additional Needs must be contacted, well in advance of the need to make such a placement.
6. Celebrating Success
This might be done by the carer, the school or the social worker; through Family Services Customer Care & Complaints procedures; or in ways organised by the LAC Support and Review Team.
It can be verbal or written, public or private. It might involve the giving of certificates or book tokens or other items appropriate to the child and does not necessarily involve the giving of any money.
Success comes in many forms. It should have been identified through the use of the solution-focused materials used to prepare for PEP meetings. It could be academic attainment but might also be related to improvements in attendance, behaviour, participation in school or the achieving of other personal successes.
7. Reviewing and Updating PEPs
Timing of the meeting – non-residential schools
The social worker should convene a meeting to review the PEP, timed to take place not more than four weeks before the child’s Looked After Reviews (or at the end of the Summer term, if the Review is due during the school holidays).
Timing of the meeting – residential schools and educational placements
If care and education are provided together it may be more appropriate to review and plan education and care at the same time. The meeting should still explicitly address educational needs and result in a PEP.
Preparation for the meeting
Preparation or consultation forms should be sent to all likely participants two weeks before the meeting. How best to consult with the child must be considered, and support or advocacy arranged if necessary.
The PEP meeting – arrangements
The meeting should involve the child, carer(s), the appropriate member(s) of school staff, LEA representatives if necessary, and parents if appropriate.
The meeting should usually be chaired by the social worker, as the PEP forms part of the Care Plan. RBKC’s LAC Education workers may chair some meetings by agreement; and will provide advice and guidance notes about chairing a PEP meeting.
If the PEP meeting is organised to coincide with (for example) an annual review of a statement or the drawing up of an IEP, the social worker
should agree with other participants in advance how responsibility for the meeting is to be shared.
The PEP meeting - purposes
Second and subsequent PEP meetings should:
- ensure that the Education Information Sheet is accurate and up-to-date;
- check that the previous PEP’s decisions and recommendations have been implemented;
- acknowledge the successes achieved;
- address current concerns;
- and agree new decisions and recommendations accordingly.
The Education Information Sheet needs to be brought up to date before the meeting.
8. School Exclusions
Contact the LAC Support and Review Team or RBKC’s LAC Education workers for advice and information, as quickly as possible.
9. When a Child is Absent from School
Contact the LAC Support and Review Team or RBKC’s LAC Education workers for advice and information.
10. When a Young Woman becomes Pregnant
Contact the LAC Support and Review Team or RBKC’s LAC Education workers for advice and information.
11. Responsibilities of Social Workers Concerning the Promotion of Education
- Have overall responsibility to ensure that the child’s educational needs are met. The social worker has the prime responsibility to co-ordinate and monitor the provision of education, and to commission services when needed.
Advice and support is available from the LAC Support and Review Team and RBKC’ LAC Education workers.
- Have overall responsibility for developing a productive working relationship with the school, the carer/residential key worker and themselves .
- Ensure that the Head Teacher and Designated Teacher are informed when a child becomes Looked After or if the legal status of the child changes.
- Ensure that the education authority of a school to which a Looked After Child moves is informed.
- Ensure that a new Personal Education Plan (PEP) is agreed as soon as possible within 20 school days of a child becoming looked after, i.e. for the first review post-placement (the 28 day review.
- Ensure that the PEP involves the child and all other significant people including foster carers, supervising social workers where appropriate, residential key workers, parents and family members if appropriate
- Ensure that a Looked After Child without a school place also has a PEP prepared for the first and any subsequent reviews. It should address how a school place is to be found and what arrangements are to be made in the meantime.
- Ensure that PEP Decisions, and PEP Recommendations accepted at the Looked After Review, are implemented by named persons/agencies, to the timescales agreed.
- Inform appropriate colleagues in the education authority and school, particularly the Designated Teacher (where allocated), of the legal status of Looked After children in all correspondence. (This will assist colleagues to prioritise Looked After children)
- Keep the Designated Teacher or other member of staff identified in the PEP informed of any significant events, for example, court cases, contact sessions etc.
- Ensure that a child’s educational needs are addressed when considering any change of looked after placement.
- Consider how best to ensure schools are provided with relevant and necessary information – this might include elements of the Care Plan.
- Support education via day-to-day arrangements relating to school transport, stationery, clothes and dinner money. Placement Plans, Personal Education Plan (PEP) or other Plans must include where appropriate, details of who will read to the child and supervise homework.
- Ensure that a child’s achievements are recognised and celebrated or otherwise acknowledged – in the placement, in the school, by the social worker or by the wider Family Services as appropriate.
- Contribute actively to the assessment process leading to a Statement of Special Educational Needs and the annual review of the Statement.
12. Responsibilities of Carers Concerning the Promotion of Education
Carers can be the most effective advocates for Looked After Children. They deal daily with their educational issues, problems and successes. They are the link to teachers, parents and other professionals.
Advice and support is available from the LAC Support and Review Team and RBKC’s LAC Education workers.
Unless there a clear reasons to the contrary, all of the below should be seen as the responsibilities of carers of Looked After Children.
Social workers, Reviewing Officers and Supervising Social Workers should negotiate with every carer and residential worker as to how these responsibilities are to be fulfilled.
- Contribute to Personal Education Plans (PEPs)
- Celebrate success when the child does well.
- Encourage children to do well educationally, and to consider careers and further or higher education if appropriate to their abilities.
- Consult the social worker to decide who should contact the school to provide and receive relevant information.
- Go to the school and introduce themselves to the class teacher or form tutor and Designated Teacher
- Aim for the child to attend school every day, inform the school of the reasons for any absences, and actively seek support if a child does not attend
- Keep information on the child’s educational circumstances and attainments and ensure that these are passed on should the placement come to an end.
- Seek support from the child’s social worker if problems occur
- Maintain regular contact with the school and attend parents’ evening and school functions e.g. school plays, sports day.
- Ensure that the child has somewhere quiet to study and do homework, with age-appropriate reference books available.
- Encourage the child to do their homework and offer help where appropriate.
- Check with the child how things are at school; regularly discuss education.
- Encourage all children to develop their own talents, and to pursue existing and new interests and hobbies.
- Enrol children as members of a library as a matter of course.
- Build a supply of children’s books (these should include books that are anti-racist and anti-sexist and also books particularly relating to the experiences of being Looked After).
- Read to or with the child as appropriate to age.
- Encourage children to watch educational television programmes and videos/DVDs and go on outings to places of interest. Use everyday situations to promote learning.
- Encourage children to participate in school and after-school activities.
- Act as an advocate on behalf of the child and intervene immediately if there is a problem with education.
- Notify the school as early as possible during the first school day of absence.
- Notify the school in writing of the reasons for a child’s absences.
Foster carers’ Supervising Social Workers should help carers with all these responsibilities, and offer support and training to help them improve the educational outcomes of the children they care for.
Educational issues should be thoroughly discussed at foster carers’ reviews.
13. Responsibilities of RBKC Education Department
To be agreed with Education Department as part of Joint Policy on Education of LAC.
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