A child who is being looked after by their local authority is known as a Child in Care (CiC).
Child in Care (CiC) may be living:
- with foster carers
- at home with their parents under supervision of social care
- in residential homes
- other residential settings like schools or secure units
They might have been placed in care voluntarily by parents struggling to cope, or children’s services may have intervened because a child was at significant risk of harm.
Support from the Leicestershire Virtual School
The Leicestershire Virtual School helps ensure children in care:
- have a place in an Early Years setting and have a successful transition to school
- have a school place and access to education at the most appropriate school for their needs
- develop hobbies and attend fun and educational out of school activities
- keep their school place, especially during Year 6 and Year 11
- attend regular Personal Education Plan (PEP) meetings (three times a year) and use the Pupil Premium Plus effectively
- are given the right sort of advice on careers or further education and support their post-16 learning
- have their education actively supported by their carers and social workers
- have their aspirations to achieve in further and higher education supported - see the statutory guidance for local authorities
Looked-After Children and the law
In UK law, Children in Care are referred to as Looked-After Children (LAC). A child is ‘looked-after’ if they are in the care of the local authority for more than 24 hours. Legally, this could be when they are:
- living in accommodation provided by the local authority with the parents agreement
- the subject of an interim full care order
- the subject of an emergency legal order to remove them from immediate danger
- in a secure children’s home, secure training centre, or young offender institution
- unaccompanied asylum seeking children
School LAC policy
We are an essential advocate for the importance of education and aim to raise self-esteem, expectations and aspirations, and remove barriers to learning. We support schools to promote understanding of the issues faced by Looked-After Children and Previously Looked-After Children and we have produced a School LAC Policy template for schools to base their own LAC policy:
Looked-After Children (LAC) admissions protocol
It is the duty of the Virtual School to ensure that "Looked-After Children have access to a suitable range of high quality education placement options.”
Looked-After Children often require a change in school placement outside of normal transition points, but unfortunately there are delays in accessing a school place which can have a negative impact on children: de-schooling them, increasing gaps in education, making eventual integration to school more difficult, and putting stress on fostering arrangements that can result in breakdown of the placement.
To address this, the Leicestershire Virtual School, in consultation with the Leicestershire Admissions Service, has produced guidance that seeks to clarify timelines and the local authority’s expectations when an in-year application for a school place is submitted for a Leicestershire LAC.
Please note: this applies to children without an EHCP requiring a place in a Leicestershire mainstream school/academy.
School attendance
The law requires parents and carers to make sure that their child of compulsory school age receives a full-time education that meets their needs, either by attending school or through alternative education arrangements.
Further reading
You may also be interested in reading about:
Previously Looked After Children
Virtual School also exists to improve the education of Children in Care and Previously LAC by supporting our family of schools, carers, social workers and parents to do their best to deliver the best possible outcomes for our children.