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9.3.8 Education

Contents 

  1. Context
  2. Procedure


1. Context

The Children Act 1989 and The National Minimum Standards for Children's Homes, 2011 stress the importance of promoting a young person's education. Furthermore, the Legislation and Guidance stresses the imperative to respond positively when a young person's education is, for any reason, in jeopardy.

This chapter relates to Education and Children’s Homes. It should be read in conjunction with Education of Looked After Children Procedure.

The local context is particularly important to be aware of because Care Matters has called upon local authorities to respond in corporate ways to the issue of education for Looked After Children and young people. Wakefield Metropolitan District Council has provided a corporate response and this is referred to below.


2. Procedure

1.0 Each Home needs to make their staff aware of the procedure Education for LAC. These are crucial policy documents in that they set out how education of young people looked after in residential childcare will be supported and promoted. All staff should be familiar with the context and content of the policy documents referred to above.
1.1 A small but important part of the promotion and support is ensuring young people get to school on time and that they have a full school uniform and the necessary school equipment.
1.2 Each young person should be given full access to educational facilities, at both school level and in further and higher education as appropriate.
1.3 Each young person should have all relevant details on their master and, as appropriate, daily living file with respect to their educational history, progress and achievements, Personal Education Plan. All staff should be familiar with the details of each young person’s education details.
1.4

The young person’s Personal Education Plan (PEP) should detail all aspects of a young person’s educational needs and how these will be met. A copy of the PEP should be kept on the young person’s RAISE Documentation.

Within the day-to-day living arrangements for the young person, the Placement Plan should demonstrate how the PEP is progressing. The placement plan should speedily identify and respond to any problems with a young person’s educational progress, paying particular attention to the following:

  • Whether the young person’s needs will be met by attending a particular educational establishment
  • The level of monitoring of a young person’s School attendance (recording of the school attendance is kept on the daily living file)
  • What involvement parent(s) and social worker will have in the education of the young person
  • Dates of national examinations such as SATs, GCSE, AS and A levels and any other exams that the young person may be taking
  • Staff who have the liaison responsibility with school, careers (Connexions), job centre, employment agencies and local employers as appropriate
  • Arrangements for travelling to and from school
1.5

Staff should ensure that someone within the team always attends parents’ meeting for school-aged young people. The key worker should co-ordinate this for the young people that he or she has the key worker role for.

1.6 Young people should be provided with facilities within the home that are conducive to homework and any other study. Young people should, if they wish, be given help with their homework. All young people, whether or not they require help with homework, should receive support, praise and encouragement from staff with respect to study and homework.             

End