Source: http://yorkchildcare.proceduresonline.com/chapters/p_educ_lac.html
Timestamp: 2018-05-22 17:31:31
Document Index: 291222948

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 1', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 3', 'art 4', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 2']

6.4.1 Education of Children in Care
Looked After Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) - This guidance explains the respective roles of the home Authority and the Authority where the child lives when these are different.
Guidance on Designated Teacher for Children in Care
Statutory Guidance for Organisations who work with and Support Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (2015)
All about Personal Education Plans (PEPs)
Section 1, Duty to Promote the Educational Achievement of Children in Care was updated in November 2014 to reflect Revised Statutory Guidance for schools and colleges on safeguarding children, including safer recruitment. References to Statements of Special Educational Need were replaced with Education, Health and Care Plans. The chapter should be read in full.
Duty to Promote the Educational Achievement of Children in Care
Training for those Involved in the Care and Education of Children in Care
Under section 22 (3A) of the Children Act 1989, local authorities have a duty to promote the educational achievement of Children in Care. Section 99 of the Children and Families Act 2014 imposes a requirement for an officer to be appointed to discharge this duty – sometimes referred to as a ‘Virtual School Head’ (‘VSH’).
As leaders responsible for ensuring that the local authority discharges its duty to promote the educational achievement of their Children in Care, Directors of Children’s Services and Lead Members for Children’s Services should ensure that:
The authority’s Children in Care Council (CiCC) regularly addresses the educational experiences raised by Children in Care and is able to respond effectively to such issues.
The Virtual School Head should be the lead responsible officer for ensuring that arrangements are in place to improve the educational experiences and outcomes of the authority’s Children in Care, including those placed out-of-authority.
Report regularly on the attainment of Children in Care through the authority’s corporate parenting structures.
Governing bodies should ensure that appropriate staff have the information they need in relation to a child’s Looked After legal status (whether they are looked after under voluntary arrangements with consent of parents or on an interim or full Care Order), and contact arrangements with birth parents or those with Parental Responsibility. They should also have information about the child’s care arrangements and the levels of authority delegated to the carer. The designated safeguarding lead, through the Designated Teacher for Children in Care, should have details of the child’s social worker and the name of the Virtual School Head.
The Personal Education Plan should be initiated as part of the Care Plan before the child becomes Looked After (or within 10 working days in the case of an emergency placement), and be available for the first Children and Young People in Care Review meeting.
All Children in Care over the age of three years must have a PEP, whether or not currently in education. It must be reviewed annually. The PEP provides essential information to ensure that appropriate support is in place to enable the child to achieve the targets set. It is also a record of the child's leisure interests and educational achievement.
PEP meetings should be person centred and conducted in such a manner that pupils can actively participate and contribute to their PEP, in accordance with the City Of York Guidelines on listening to children and young people and enabling their participation in review meetings. In helping children and young people to prepare for their PEP meeting social workers should make use of the suite of booklets Listen to Me.
Chronology of education and training history which provides a record of the child’s educational experience and progress in terms of National Curriculum levels of attainment, including information about educational institutions attended and the reasons for leaving, attendance and conduct record, academic and other achievements, any special educational needs, an indication of the extent to which the child’s education has been disrupted before entering care or accommodation;
The City of York PEP consists of 4 separate parts (Part 1, 2, 3, 4), which when combined, form the child / young person’s PEP.
PEP Part 1 - Essential Information: This section is completed by the social worker and sent to school, before the PEP meeting.
PEP Part 2 - Educational Information: The Designated Teacher in Schools / Designated Worker in Early Years Settings is responsible for completing this and sends a copy to the social worker, before the PEP meeting.
PEP Part 3 - My Personal Education Plan: This is the child’s contribution. The child decides how they would like to contribute / participate to their PEP and completes their contribution with help and support from an adult that they like and trust in the school early years setting. The child completes this before the PEP meeting, so they can present it at the meeting.
PEP Part 4 - Summary and Action Plan: This section is completed by the Designated Teacher / Worker. It is a summary of the discussion and agreements reached at the PEP meeting. It summarises:
What is working / going well for the child (strengths, successes, achievements);
What isn’t working? (current issues, concerns, problems);
What is important for the child now (things we need to work on now - short term targets);
The child’s hopes for the future (long term targets)?
When it is planned that a child over the age of three will be Accommodated, or becomes Looked After in an emergency, the social worker must immediately initiate the PEP process. The social worker:
Completes PEP Part 1 Essential Information;
Sends the standard PEP letter to the Designated Teacher / worker to inform them that a child needs a PEP. The following attachments are sent with letter: completed PEP Part 1; Blank copies of PEP Part 2, 3, 4; All About PEP’s and a letter from the LAC EP about PEP’s;
Contacts the Designated Teacher / worker to arrange a date for the PEP meeting;
Advises the Designated Teacher / worker who to invite to the PEP meeting.
When the PEP is received by Children’s Social Care, it is the Admin Officer in which ever department that the social worker is based who records the date of the PEP on Mosaic and passes a copy to the social worker and the Independent Reviewing Officer.
Further guidance is available in All about Personal Education Plans (PEPs).
The service manager must approve of any change of placement affecting a child in Key Stage 4, except in an emergency/where the placement is terminated because of an immediate risk of serious harm to the child or to protect others from serious injury.
In those circumstances, the Local Authority must make appropriate arrangements to promote the child’s educational achievement as soon as reasonably practicable.
Other than in Key Stage 4, where the Local Authority proposes making any change to the child’s placement that would have the effect of disrupting the arrangements made for education and training, they must ensure that other arrangements are made for education or training that meet the child’s needs and are consistent with the PEP.
The first PEP should be in place within the first 20 days of a child becoming Looked After.
If a Child in Care has an Education, Health and Care Plan, the annual review of the Plan meeting and annual review report can be substituted for the PEP meeting and PEP Part 2, 3 and 4. This avoids additional meetings and unnecessary paperwork for everyone. The annual review effectively does the same job as the PEP. In essence they are both person centred education reviews which are completed by schools to:
Celebrate the child’s educational progress;
Identify what is working well;
Identify any areas for further work;
Decide what else we need to do to help and support the child’s education.
Detailed guidance is available from Paul Bent, Educational Psychologist Combining the Annual Review of the Education, Health and Care Plan and LAC Personal Education Plan.
NB The provision of education for pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans can only be changed if the child's plan has been amended at an annual review.
The choice of school requires skilled working between relevant people. It should be based on a discussion between the child’s social worker, their carers and, if appropriate, birth parents. The VSH should normally be consulted to avoid choosing a school that is unlikely to meet the child’s needs. Children in Care have been given the highest priority within school admission arrangements. VSHs, working with education settings, should implement pupil premium arrangements for Children in Care.
Schools judged by Ofsted to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ should be prioritised for Children in Care in need of a new school. Unless there are exceptional evidence-based reasons, Children in Care should never be placed in a school judged by Ofsted to be ‘inadequate’.
A new or updated PEP should be in place within the first 20 days of a child joining a new school. Subsequent annual PEP reviews should correspond with the Children and Young People in Care Review cycle.
Agree a date for the next PEP review meeting and how and when the next full PEP is going to be drawn up (this needs to take account of the Children and Young People in Care Review cycle because the PEP has to be ready before or at the Review; but also term dates, parents’ evenings, school target setting days, Individual Education Plan reviews, annual reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans etc).
All Children in Care of statutory school age should have an education placement. If they do not have a school placement, please contact the City of York Virtual Headteacher for Children in Care as quickly as possible.
Please see below for examples of complex circumstances:
The child is refusing to attend school.
As the child is on a school roll at this stage, it is important that the PEP goes ahead within the agreed timescales. This should take place as normal at the school and the child should be invited to attend, even if they have not attended school for a period. If the child does not want to attend the meeting, the foster carer or social worker should gain their views, and share them with those present at the meeting;
The child is on roll at Danesgate Community and is either attending sessions at Danesgate or completing an education otherwise programme such as: 1-1 tuition, Alternative Learning Programme, Work Related Learning / Skills Centre.
Children completing any of the above are all on the roll of Danesgate Community Centre, and as such the Designated Teacher for Children in Care at Danesgate will complete the PEP, in the same way that it would be completed for any other child in care.
7.1 Children Placed in a different local authority area
Where the child does not have a school place because one cannot be found, or the child has been placed at very short notice, the child’s social worker should notify the education service in the area where the child is placed and request that a school be identified for the child as soon as possible. The assistance of the local education service (and the local SEN adviser if appropriate) should also be sought, and the Virtual Headteacher for Children in Care should also be notified. Unless Section 7.2, Pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans applies, the education service local to the placement should identify a school place within 20 working days at the latest; and should be asked to provide alternative education if a school place cannot be found immediately or is not appropriate.
7.2 Pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans
Children’s educational (and other) achievements should be acknowledged at one or more of the following times: at Children and Young People in Care Review; in the PEP, at school-based meetings; in school reports; and after exams.
The child’s social worker must ensure PEP review meetings take place on time.
Second and subsequent PEP’s should take place annually and correspond with the Children and Young People in Care Review cycle and PEP decisions and recommendations must be available to the child's Independent Reviewing Officer at the Child Care Review. For children who have an Education, Health and Plan. see Section 4.2, The First Personal Education Plan.
Proposals that would lead to significant changes in arrangements (e.g. a change of school, a request for an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment) and/or to increases in expenditure (private tuition, a jointly-funded placement) should be made in the form of recommendations to the Children and Young People in Care Review.
The child’s social worker should work with the child’s school between Children and Young People in Care Reviews (involving the VSH if necessary) to ensure that up-to-date PEP information is fed into those reviews, and ensure that all relevant information about the child’s educational progress and support needs is up-to-date and evidenced before the Children and Young People in Care Review.
IROs should ensure that the PEP’s effectiveness is scrutinised in sufficient detail as part of the Children and Young People in Care Review and at other times if necessary. Where a child has Special Educational Needs, the IRO should ensure that the PEP review is linked with any review of those needs.
Where necessary, the Children Missing from Care Procedure must be followed.
Where a school has concerns about a Child in Care’s behaviour, the VSH should be informed and, where necessary, involved at the earliest opportunity. This is to enable the VSH, working with others, to:
15. Training for those Involved in the Care and Education of Children in Care
The VSH should ensure that there are appropriate arrangements in place to meet the training needs of those responsible for promoting the educational achievement of Children in Care. This includes carers, social workers, Designated Teachers and IROs.
How relevant information about individual children is passed promptly between authorities, departments and schools when young people move. Relevant information includes the PEP, which as part of the Child in Care’s educational record should be transferred with them to the new school.