Support from the Leicestershire Virtual School
Virtual Schools provide information, advice, and support to improve the education, learning, and life chances of children and young people who are or have been in care.
We can offer schools and early years settings:
- advice and information, and signpost them to other services for advice and support if necessary
- general advice and information to improve awareness and give strategies to meet the needs of Previously Looked-After Children
- guidance on effective use of the Pupil Premium Plus funds, admissions, and SEN concerns
Contacting the Virtual School
Virtual Schools offer a duty line which is open every weekday.
Calls and emails from parents, guardians, Designated Teachers, or professionals will be logged by our Business Support team and information will be sent to the Virtual School Senior Education Advisor who is on duty. They will respond within seven working days.
In the first instance the Senior Education Advisor will offer advice, guidance, and strategies to the caller which may also include emailing information and signposting to other agencies.
This may also include supporting with admission and EHCP requests by checking that admissions and SEN are aware of Previously Looked-After Children status to ensure they are being prioritised.
Attachment and Trauma training will be offered to schools and parents as appropriate.
Designated Teachers
All schools have a Designated Teacher for Looked-After and Previously Looked-After Children. This teacher has responsibility for all Previously Looked-After Children and now those in kinship care too.
Unique Pupil Number
It is standard practice for children adopted from care to be issued with a new Unique Pupil Number (UPN) to break the link between the pre-adoption and post-adoption record.
Resources to support
You may find the following publication a helpful starting point:
Personal Education Plans (PEP)
There’s no statutory requirement for a PEP for Previously Looked-After Children. However, you should have regular meetings with the child and their parents, guardians, or carers to discuss the child’s educational strengths and needs, and record all agreed actions.
Meetings with parents, guardians, and carers of Previously Looked-After Children could be recorded on these forms:
Family Adoption Links have created an Education Passport which contains a variety of documents and information about education support in Leicestershire.
Pupil Premium Plus (PPP)
Funding is available to support the education of pupils who were previously looked-after by a local authority or other state care and were then adopted or left care on a Special Guardianship Order or Child Arrangements Order. See the current rates for eligible pupils
The school will receive the PPP funding from central government in the same way they do for pupil premium. In order for the school to receive this money, parents must self-declare that they have a Previously Looked-After Child. The school will then record this information on the October school census and receive the funding in the following financial year. If a child is not recorded as previously looked-after for the October census, then they will not receive the funding.
It is good practice to discuss with parents how the PPP could be best used to support their child:
PPP information Opens new window
Support to improve children's behaviour
Previously Looked-After Children and children in kinship care may have past experiences that continue to impact on their behaviour. This should be recognised by the school and some degree of flexibility should be exercised (for example within their behaviour policy).
The school should look to support the child to improve their behaviour by incorporating trauma-informed, attachment-aware practices, with relevant training if necessary.
All approaches should be exhausted to avoid exclusion becoming necessary. Where a Previously Looked-After Child is at risk of exclusion, the designated teacher should talk to the child’s carers and possibly ask the advice of the Virtual School.
Communication between school and carers
Good communication is essential between parents / carers and schools. At the start of term, it should be agreed who the main point of contact is (e.g. designated teacher, form tutor, or a member of the pastoral team) and how you will communicate (e.g. email, text, phone call).