Legal basics for teachers: pupils in care

The White Paper Care Matters — Time for Change sets out steps that the Government will take, with local authorities and schools, to improve the outcomes of children and young people in care. It builds on responses to the Green Paper Care Matters: Transforming the Lives of Children and Young People in Care.

The White Paper will be incorporated into the Children in Care Bill 2007, which will run in the Government’s draft legislative programme for 2007-2008. On this basis, we should expect the Bill to become law over the next parliamentary term [as at time of writing - September 2007].

This article focuses on Chapter 4 of the White Paper, Delivering a First Class Education, and explains the proposals that have emerged after consultation.

BETTER EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES
The White Paper seeks to improve education outcomes for children in care by:

• improving access to high-quality early years provision
• ensuring that children in care have access to the best schools — through priority in admissions arrangements and a presumption that they will not move school
• personalised learning through better assessment and intervention
• a £500 personal learning allowance
• personal tutoring
• improved 14-19 provision
• extended activities
• putting the designated teacher on a statutory footing
• introducing virtual school heads to improve provisions in schools
• taking targeted action on poor attendance, and strengthening guidance on exclusion of children in care — making clear that this should be a last resort
• improving support for carers, including training for foster carers
• improved accountability

EARLY YEARS PROVISION
The Government claims to have over 1,300 children centres, and is on course to establish 3,500 by 2010 — one for every community. Despite this, children in care are less likely than their peers to benefit from high-quality early years provision.

The Child Care Act 2006 gave local authorities a duty, working with their NHS and Jobcentre Plus partners, to improve the outcomes of all young children from 0 to 5, and to reduce inequalities between them.
From April 2008, local authorities must provide information, advice and assistance to parents and carers in finding appropriate early years provision. By 2009 new national minimum standards for foster carers will require local authorities to ensure that foster carers are trained to understand the important of early years provision.

ADMISSIONS
The Government believes that children in care are less likely than their peers to attend high-performing schools. Local authorities, as corporate parents, must ensure that children and young people in care have access to high-quality education that meets their needs.

The Education and Inspections
Act 2006, section 106, gives local authorities the power to direct schools to admit children in care, even where a school is already fully subscribed. Local admissions forums must promote the needs of children in care.

BOARDING SCHOOLS
The Government wants better access for children in care who need to board. Existing initiatives include the Boarding provision for vulnerable children pathfinder project, set up to match children to boarding schools and local authorities.

In the early stages of this project it was not always possible to match independent boarding schools and local authorities from the same area: with the White Paper's renewed focus, this should gain pace.

Charitable purpose
The Charities Act 2006 means that independent schools can no longer rely on the presumption that the provision of education is a charitable purpose. They will soon be required to meet a new public benefit test. The vulnerable children's schemes may prove of interest to independent boarding schools as a way of demonstrating that their education provision is accessible to children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

STABILITY OF SCHOOLING
Too many children in care experience multiple placements — over one in 10 children leaving care in the year ending 31 March had had nine or more placements. Only six out of 10 children who have been in care for over two-and-a-half years have been in the same placement for more than two years.

Mobility has a detrimental effect on education. On average, pupils who move school during Key Stage 4 attain 75 points lower at GCSE — equivalent of between one and two grades in every subject — even after factors such as prior attainment and deprivation are taken into account.

Reduced disruption
The Government intends to reduce the disruption of schooling for children in care by introducing a requirement that the local authority must ensure that a child or young person's education is not disrupted as a result of care planning decisions.

This will include a specific requirement that children in care must not move schools in Years 10 and 11, except in exceptional circumstances.

The Government will make clear to local authorities, through the revised Children Act 1989 guidance, that the cost of transport, including for disabled children with particular transport needs, should not prevent children in care remaining in a placement. Where necessary, the local authority should provide free transport.

THE VIRTUAL SCHOOL HEAD
The Government is piloting a 'virtual school heads' scheme in 11 local authority areas. This builds on existing good practice. The role is to oversee the education of children in care in that authority, as if s/he were the head teacher of a single school.

Virtual heads will work across the local authority, the children's trust partners, and with individual schools, including academies and FE colleges that are providing 14-19 education for children in care.

What they will do
The virtual school heads will broker agreements to improve outcomes for children in care, and will work with school improvement partners, school head teachers and designated teachers to raise the attainment of children in care, to reduce absence and tackle exclusions, and to ensure that revision meets the children's learning needs.

They will be responsible for championing the educational needs of children in care, spreading best practice across schools. They will report to the local authority's director of children's services and lead member for children's services on the improvements that need to be made.

DESIGNATED TEACHERS
Many schools have already appointed a 'designated teacher' for children in care. His or her role is to:

• understand needs of children in care
• take responsibility for raising attainment
• analyse data and identify learning needs to put in place appropriate teaching and learning provision

The White Paper will put the role of the designated teacher on a statutory footing, supported by training and statutory guidance. This will clearly set out the role and responsibilities, and will apply to new academies through their funding agreements.

The Best practice in schools working group concluded that to ensure that designated teachers can represent children in care effectively, the designated teacher should be a member of the school's senior leadership team, and should be a teacher.

Schools must determine where in their staff and management structures, this role would be best located.

• Revised Children Act guidance will be published in 2009, setting out the combined roles of designated teachers, social workers, carers and the children and young people themselves, in working towards improved educational outcomes.
• Designated teachers will also be responsible for considering gifted and talented children's provision, and will work with the leading teacher for gifted and talented pupils.

THE PERSONAL EDUCATION PLAN
A key aspect of the designated teacher's role is his or her involvement in the design and delivery of personal education plans. All children in care should have a PEP, covering a record of their achievements, identification of their educational and development needs, clearer attainment targets, and long-term plans and aspirations. Since 2005, the PEP has formed part of the official school record for children in care.

PERSONALISED LEARNING
The Government has committed over £1billion to personalised learning across the county, weighted towards children with low attainment and high deprivation. This investment is designed to support:

• small groups and one-to-one intervention for children who have fallen behind in English and Maths and who need help to catch up
• learners from deprived backgrounds who will benefit from access to after-school and year-round activities

Each school will have to develop its own plans for personalised learning, sensitive to the needs and circumstances of the children it serves. By 2008, every school will have access to leading teachers in interventions in maths and English, and to a leading teacher for gifted and talented provision.

PERSONAL ALLOWANCE
From 2008 the Government will provide £500 a year for each child in care who is at risk of not attaining expected standards, to support his or her educational and development needs.

The Government will set out how local authorities must use the £500. This entitlement is not designed to replace the services schools, local authorities and carers already provide, but it should go towards a wide range of additional activities to support the educational development of the child or young person.

How the £500 will be used
The Government hopes that it will give children in care greater access to extended services, personal tuition outside school and positive activities and trips to enrich their learning.

The overall allocation will be overseen by the virtual school head. At an individual level, plans for the use of the £500 will be agreed by the designated teacher, the social worker, the child or young person and his or her carer, as part of the discussion of his or her overall personal education plan and care plan.

PROGRESSION
The Government will run the Making good progress pilot to measure, assess, report and stimulate pupils' progress in school, focusing on the needs of low-attaining pupils, including children and young people in care. It will start in 483 schools in 10 local authorities in September 2007.

108,000 pupils will take part in the pilot, with 43,000 offered up to 10 hours of targeted tuition in English and maths. Tuition will be designed to meet children and young people's individual needs, and be delivered at the time of need. It will be focused on pupils who are behind national expectations or are in care.

Supporting this, HSBC are providing £1million to support individual tutoring for children in care. This provision will be overseen by virtual school heads in four local authority areas. The Government estimates that it will give up to 1,000 children in care access to approximately 15 hours of tutoring a year based on their educational needs.

ATTENDANCE AND EXCLUSION
In September 2007, the Government strengthened guidance on school exclusions (see last month’s issue, and this issue page 8, for more details). This says that children in care should only be excluded as a last resort.

In conjunction with the local authority, schools should first consider alternative options for supporting the child or young person. Where a pupil is permanently excluded, the White Paper adds the requirement that children in care must have alternative provision arranged from the first day of the exclusion.

INCREASED ACCOUNTABILITY
Since September 2005, schools have been inspected against their contribution to the five Every Child Matters outcomes: be healthy; stay safe; enjoy and achieve; make a positive contribution; and achieve economic well-being.

The White Paper proposes the delivery of more training for school governors to help them understand the needs of children in care and to effectively hold the school to account.

Local authorities
Local authorities will be made more accountable from 2008 through a duty to set statutory education targets as part of their local area agreements. The targets will include the education of children in care.
The virtual school head or equivalent interim school manager will also contribute to this enhanced system of accountability. S/he must report to the director of children's services and lead member for children's services, setting out where the local authority and their partners need to improve their provision for the education of children in care.

FIND OUT MORE
The Care matters — time for change White Paper, Department for Children, Schools and Families
DfES contextualised Key Stage 2 - 4 value added model (2006)
Personalised learning: see Budget 2007, Building Britain's Long-Term Future: Prosperity and Fairness for Families, HMT2007

Yvonne Spencer is a solicitor advocate with Fisher Jones Greenwood LLP