Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Children and Family Services concerning the role of and work undertaken by the Leicestershire Virtual School in supporting the education of Leicestershire’s Children in Care. A copy of the report marked ‘Agenda Item 8’ is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussion the following points were raised:

1. A concern was expressed that the report did not include information on how Leicestershire’s Children in Care were performing against those of statistical neighbours and nationally. It was felt that this information would better enable the Committee to understand if issues were regional, national, or local and what could be done to improve educational outcomes in light of this. The Committee was informed that Children in Care’s educational results at Key Stage 4 nationally were poor, and below that in Leicestershire. It was acknowledged that Leicestershire’s performance in this regard required improvement;

2. It was reported that results in Key Stage 2 for Children in Care were good but were however falling behind at  Key Stage 4. The Committee was advised that the cohort reported on had high levels of children with special educational needs and disabilities which had impacted the results;

3. The Committee enquired as to whether there was a correlation between KS4 results and those children taken into care at an older age. The Committee was informed that results for children taken into care during KS4 showed that there was less opportunity for sustained progress and therefore results often suffered. However, these young people often had better chances later in life at post 16, and the Virtual School reported that it worked with post 16 cohorts to ensure sustained development;

4. The Committee queried what the Virtual School was doing to improve the educational outcomes of Leicestershire’s children in care. School staff and partners used focussed personal education plans, targeted the use of pupil premium, and took multi-agency approaches to try and meet the needs of the children in care. The meetings at which the focussed personal education plans were discussed involved children’s carers, social workers, and young people were also encouraged to have an input into their plans. The Virtual School worked with designated teachers also to understand the needs of the children in care so that the personal educational plans could be planned to meet these specific needs;

5. The Virtual School worked to raise the aspirations of Leicestershire’s Children in Care, and one method used was to offer University taster days to children as young as 10 and 11 in primary years 5 and 6;

6. Good working relationships were maintained with other Virtual Schools as part of Leicestershire’s cohort was placed outside of County, and swift access to school places was needed;

7. Pupil premium was utilised in schools to raise the attainment of disadvantaged children. It was reported that Schools were best placed to understand how the additional funding should be applied so as to meet the needs of the Children in Care. The Virtual School effectively monitored the use of pupil premium and requested breakdowns of how the funding would be used against the personal education plans of individual children to ensure that it was being utilised effectively. Funds were released to schools on a termly basis to allow regular monitoring. Central funding was also available for use for children that needed additional support such as one to one tuition;

8. To ensure that Children in Care were being supported during the Summer holidays, the Virtual School worked with Foster Carers and those agencies involved in the focussed personal education planning meetings to make sure that funding was used effectively to support the children throughout the entire year and that support was also received outside of the School during the holiday periods;

9. The Committee queried whether the Virtual School stretched those Children in Care who were achieving or had over-achieved. It was reported that the Virtual School supported all Children in Care to achieve at all levels and that there had been some individual successes whereby two young people had achieved places at their first choice University;
   
   
10. Schools employed designated teachers who were responsible for the educational achievement of children in care in their school. To ensure that the staff employed held the requisite skills, the Virtual School worked with schools and Governors to assist in identifying appropriate staff. Ongoing training was provided to designated teachers and the Virtual School was undertaking a new piece of work with college staff also. It was noted that in Primary schools, the designated teacher was often the Head teacher, in secondary schools it was usually a senior member of staff with up to date training, skills and appropriate understanding of children in care’s needs;

11. A concern was expressed around how levels of attendance and motivation could affect the learning of young people, and the Committee questioned how the Virtual School worked with schools to secure high attendance and encourage motivation in their children in care. Whilst the Virtual School did not directly work with young people, it acted as part of a partnership that was alerted to issues around non-attendance and was able to contribute to the partnership by monitoring and discussing any concerns. With regard to motivation and self-esteem, the Department more generally offered a number of opportunities for children in care to increase their confidence and self-esteem both in and out of school through Football Clubs, the Beacon Choir, and the Tall Ships project run by the Virtual School. It was suggested that the Children’s Social Care Panel explore the education of children in care and the support provided by the Virtual School, particularly in those instances where educational attendance was known to be below average.

RESOLVED:

a)    That the Education of Children in Care report be noted;

b)    That the Children’s Social Care Panel be asked to explore the education of Children in Care and the support provided by the Virtual School, particularly in those instances where educational attendance is known to be below average.