Wirral Virtual School for Children Looked After

What is Wirral Virtual School?

Wirral Virtual School has the statutory duty of overseeing the education of children in the care of the local authority (CLA). We can also support education settings, social workers and carers by offering advice and guidance about:

• children with a social worker
• previously looked after children
• Care leavers
• children in kinship care

Wirral Virtual School is not an online learning platform.

Wirral Virtual School is a dedicated service within the Children, Family and Education Directorate and was previously known as 'Looked After Children’s Education Services' (LACES).

What do we do?

The purpose of the Virtual School is to work with schools, social care, families, carers, residential settings and other professionals to close this gap in attainment and educational outcomes, particularly for CLA.

Statistically, children open to social care experience significant disadvantage in comparison to their peers (read more on GOV.UK - outcomes for children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England). 

As of 2023, these children are:

• over twice as likely to have Special Educational Needs
• 50% less likely to achieve the expected standard at Key Stage 2
• over four times less likely to achieve a Grade 5 in English and Maths at GCSE
• twice as likely to be absent from school
• over twice as likely to be persistently absent (more than 10%)
• over five times as likely to be severely absent (more than 50%)
• four times as likely to be suspended from school
• over seven times as likely to be permanently excluded

How do we do it?

A key focus of the Virtual School is oversight of the Personal Education Plan (PEP). This is a statutory document for all looked after children, which is written by the child’s school in conjunction with the child, their carers and their social worker. The PEP includes individualised targets for the young people to make academic, pastoral and attendance progress and achieve the best possible outcomes by the end of their education journey. Schools are also allocated Pupil Premium Plus (PP+) funding for each looked after child, which they use to accelerate the learning of the young people, and evidence this spending within the PEP. 

In the Autumn and Summer terms, schools complete a PEP for each looked after child, which is then reviewed by the Virtual School, who will support with improvements where necessary. The PP+ funding is issued to schools at the end of the term. In the Spring, a full PEP is not completed; instead, the Virtual School will meet with schools and complete a Review document. They discuss progress made and the impact of interventions listed in the Autumn PEP. The Virtual School use this review to plan next steps for the Summer term.

In addition to the PEP, the Virtual School takes on other key work to improve the outcomes of children in care and children with a social worker, including:

• facilitating training for schools, carers, social workers and other professionals
• working with professionals to ensure all statutory age children (5-16) are in receipt of 25 hours of education each week
• liaising with the Learning, Skills and Employability team to find suitable education and/or employment for young people ‘not in education, employment or training’ (16-18)
• ensuring that the voice of the young person is considered and included at all stages of the PEP and care planning processes
• collecting, analysing and acting on data regarding the progress and attainment of looked after children
• monitoring the school attendance of looked after children and working with other professionals to deliver interventions which improve attendance and engagement

The Virtual School also provides advice and guidance to carers, professionals, and schools, to support children who have, or have had, a social worker in improving their educational outcomes. 

How we can help

Each young person we work with has their own experiences and challenges, so there is no template for what we can do to help. Depending on individual needs, we can:

• provide rewards, such as vouchers, for young people who have made excellent progress, shown resilience, or overcome difficult circumstances to succeed in education
• support the EHCP process, e.g. by liaising with the SEND team and other professionals
• suggest suitable employment or education options for children who are not accessing the statutory requirements
• work with schools to prevent permanent exclusion wherever possible
• facilitate enhanced transition support for nursery to primary school, Year 6 to Year 7, and Year 11 to Post-16
• source additional resources and/or equipment for looked after children to enable them to access learning
• commission external organisations to deliver programmes and opportunities to benefit the wider cohort of looked after children
• signpost young people and their professionals to services that can provide specialist social, emotional, mental health and wellbeing support

Contact us