7.1 Education

Contents

1. Key Responsibilities
2. Exclusion/Refusal to Attend School
3. School Exclusions
4. When a Young Woman becomes Pregnant

1. Key Responsibilities

1.1 Responsibilities of the Social Worker

The Personal Education Plan (PEP) is the central platform for the education of Looked After Children, which should be incorporated within each child’s Care Plan.

Social workers should liaise with Designated Teachers or other identified members of staff in schools to ensure that Personal Education Plans are complied with and kept up to date.

The social worker is normally responsible for arranging and chairing any meetings associated with the plan, unless other meetings/reviews need to coincide; in which case the social worker should liaise, in advance, with the person convening or chairperson as to how responsibilities can be discharged.

A Personal Education Plan must be based on accurate and up-to-date information. Everyone relevant should be consulted about both their views and their ability to contribute to the child’s educational progress.

The social worker must also ensure that parents are involved in these events as far as is appropriate, and that copies of the child’s school reports are sent to the parents.

For detailed procedures regarding the arrangements for compiling and reviewing Personal Education Plans, see Education of Looked After Children of the Bradford Services to Children and Young People Procedures Manual.

1.2 Responsibilities of the Home

This section provides guidance on the role and responsibilities of the Home's Manager and staff.

We recognise the importance that education plays in the future experiences and life chances of the young people in our care. We believe that every young person has a right to access education of the highest quality and at a level appropriate to their individual ability and circumstances.

We believe that in order to maximise educational opportunities it is essential that teaching and care staff work co-operatively in an attempt to provide meaningful and relevant 24 hour curriculum. Education is not limited merely to the classroom, education is a continuous process which occurs throughout the waking day. That is not to say that education can not be enjoyable or fun, there are many educational activities which occur naturally in our work with young people.

It is however important that staff work co-operatively and that care staff liaise on a regular basis teaching staff or with external schools, to ensure that educational programme's are appropriately differentiated. Key/Link Workers have regular contact with teachers and co-operate with reviews of key Plans e.g. Individual Care and Education Plans (ICEP's), ensuring that education and placement/care plans are consistent or complement each other.

Key/Link Workers must ensure that Children have adequate opportunities and support to complete homework and take part in extracurricular activities.  

Children should be encouraged to join a library and have opportunities to access a range of educational support material, including books and specialist educational software.

Each Child's must have a Personal Education Plan (PEP), which addresses the appropriateness of the Child's educational placement and any special educational needs that the young person has. The plan also details the arrangements for monitoring school attendance, and arrangements for parental or social work involvement in the education of the child.

The PEP must be drawn up before the child becomes Looked After (or within 10 working days in the case of an emergency placement), and be available for the first statutory review meeting. If a child is placed in the Home without a PEP and it is the child’s first Looked After placement, the timescales above apply; if it is a subsequent placement, the Child should already have a PEP, if this is not the case, the Home’s manager should obtain one from the social worker.

Key/Link Workers, in the absence of parents, must attend all school events that would usually be attended by parents such as open days, school plays etc.

Any young person of statutory school age who is not attending school (or a pupil referral unit) would be provided with an appropriate and differentiated educational programme delivered under the supervision of a qualified teacher during normal school hours. Staff from the home would work closely with the Social Worker to secure a school placement as quickly as possible.

2. Exclusion/Refusal to Attend School

Care staff must notify the school and social worker immediately if the child does not attend school for any reason.

On rare occasions young people may either be unable to attend school as a result of exclusion or may choose not to attend school, school refusal. Exclusions are either fixed term; i.e. for a specified number of days after which the young person will return to his or her school; or permanent; where it is not intended that the young person will return to that particular school.

Due to the close working relationships established between care staff and school based staff it is likely that staff from the home will be aware of any difficulties the young person is experiencing or causing within the educational setting prior to exclusion being used by the school. At this stage staff from the home will liaise closely with school staff in order to provide additional support to the young person during this period of difficulty. All action taken at this time will be recorded in the young person's individual records and the Personal Education Plan (PEP) will be amended to reflect the changed circumstances.

However there may well be situations whereby the school has no option but to exclude the young person without prior warning, for example in response to an isolated incident of a very serious nature. Examples of this would include a serious assault on another pupil or member of staff or the taking of illegal substances into to school.

When young people have been excluded from school or have refused to attend, staff from the home will ask the school to provide study materials for the young person to complete during the period of their exclusion or refusal. Staff from the home will assist and supervise the young person in completing this work during normal school hours.

It is important that any young person who is excluded, and also other young people in the home do not view exclusion from school as an extended holiday. A criticism often leveled at residential care is that too frequently young people have no routine, they are frequently not at school, get up when they please, and at best, spend their days unoccupied and bored. We believe that establishing a balanced approach for young people will achieve positive outcomes.

On those occasions where a young person is permanently excluded from school staff from the home will work closely with the Social Worker to identify an appropriate alternative educational placement. Whilst an alternative placement is being sought, we will endeavour to provide a short term educational package.

The individual needs of young people within each service setting will vary greatly; because of such diverse need it is neither possible, nor do we intend to be prescriptive about nature of any alternative educational package provided. All such programme's would be delivered under the supervision of a qualified teacher and would be appropriately differentiated.

3. School Exclusions

Where a child is excluded from school for a fixed period, the school will provide work for the child. The social worker must liaise with the carer about suitable arrangements for supervising the child doing the schoolwork during the day.

The school will communicate the reasons for the exclusion to the carer and the social worker.  Whoever is the most appropriate one to do so will discuss this with the child. The social worker should inform the parents.

The social worker must seek advice as to whether to appeal – a permanent exclusion should always be appealed unless there are clear reasons not to.

When a child is permanently excluded but is remaining in the same placement, the social worker will liaise urgently with the Lead Officer in the local education authority for the area where the child is placed to find an alternative school placement. 

4. When a Young Woman becomes Pregnant

Becoming pregnant is not in itself a reason to stop attending school, nor to cease education.

Where a young woman becomes pregnant, the social worker must ensure that the young woman remains in education if at all possible and arrange for her to receive support from the local education authority for the area in which she lives and/or the local education authority of the school she attends.

End