Looked After Children Education Service (LACE)
Services
The Virtual School (Looked After Children Education Service) is able to offer the following:
- Track and monitor the progress of all Calderdale Looked After Children
- Are the lead professional for Personal Education Plans (PEPs)
- Deliver in school interventions through 1 to 1 support
- Provide early years advice and support
- Provide Further Education / Higher Education advice and support
- Manage the Virtual School database
- Provide support at Looked After Children Reviews, Special Educational Needs meetings and Team Around the Child (TAC) meetings
- Support transitions
- Support partnership working with agencies and Council services eg School Admissions, Youth Offending and Social Care
- Deliver training to teachers, school governors, foster carers and partners.
The way the service works
The Virtual School has a tiered delivery model for Calderdale Looked After Children:
| Level 1 | Monitoring individual attainment, attendance, SEN, exclusions and leading on Personal Education Plans (PEPs). |
| Level 2 | Individual casework including negotiation and advocacy, attendance at multi-agency meetings and assessments. |
| Level 3 | Individual direct work with young people through interventions in school and off site for learning (under achievement) behaviour and attendance issues. |
The support from the Virtual School is “additional” to school resources. Referrals for interventions at Level 3 are agreed at the PEP meeting or by the Virtual School Head / Virtual School Team Manager following key stage meetings. Looked After Children at risk of exclusion will be allocated immediate support by the Virtual School Team Manager.
The Virtual School Head has the additional responsibility of monitoring the progress of Looked After Children who are placed in Calderdale schools by other local authorities, and will offer advice and exchange data with other authorities.
Section 52 of the Children Act 2004 places a duty on the local authority to raise the attainment of Looked After Children. The Virtual School provides statutory outreach support to Looked After Children in mainstream schools and alternative settings as a core service. There is no charge to schools / settings or academies for this core service including Levels 1-3, due to the statutory corporate parenting responsibilities of the Local Authority.
The Virtual School will offer training to all schools for designated teachers, who are new to their statutory role, but will only charge academies. Additional bespoke training packages specific to individual schools or clusters can be negotiated for all schools as a traded service.
The service is made up of the following posts:
| Virtual School Head | strategic management and performance of the Virtual School. |
| Virtual School Team Manager | operational management of the team. |
| Key Stage Co-ordinators | responsible for a specific cohort of children: Key Stage 4/5 Co-ordinator Key Stage 3 Co-ordinator Key Stage 2 Co-ordinator Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 Co-ordinator |
| Learning Mentors x 3 | in school interventions through 1 to 1 direct work. |
| Administrator | administrative support and management of the Virtual School database. |
Useful resources
- Calderdale policy on Education of Looked After Children (Children in Public Care) [PDF file 40KB]|
- Looked After Children
Town Hall, Crossley Street, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX1 1UJ
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