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Supporting
the Needs of
Looked After
Children
Who are ‘looked
after children’
The term 'looked
after' refers to children who are under 18 and
have been provided with care and
accommodation by children's services. Often
this will be with foster carers, but some
looked after children might stay in a
children's home or boarding school, or with
another adult known to the parents and
children's services.
The aim is to ensure the health and safety of
looked after children, who often come from
families who have experienced extreme
hardship and upheaval, whilst working as
closely as possible with the birth parents.
Any disruption to home life often means that
looked after children do not achieve their
academic potential. Children's services also
works to make sure the educational needs of
each child are met.
Why do children become ‘looked after’
A large number of these children coming into
care will have a history of physical, sexual or
emotional abuse. Some may have suffered
the death of a parent, or have parents who
can’t look after them properly because of
illness. Others may have disabilities and
many different needs. A very small number
are in care because of crimes they have
committed.
Many children and young people in care
have experienced great personal upheaval.
This disruption to home life and education
can prevent them from reaching their
academic potential.
Children and young people in care often
make up a large percentage of those that are
excluded from school, fail to attend school,
suffer from emotional behavioural difficulties
or have special educational needs.
There are significant gaps between what
they and their class mates achieve. Special
measures are needed to overcome this
problem.
Personal education plans
To help children in care to do better at school,
teachers and social workers work together to
prepare an individual plan for each child.
These are called 'Personal education
plans' (PEP).
All looked after children of primary and
secondary school age have a PEP. The child
or young person meets with their social
worker, carer and school representative to
discuss how they are getting on at school and
what could be done to help them achieve their
academic potential.
A PEP can help to raise the child’s self esteem
by identifying their strengths and abilities and
learning to build on them. PEPs can highlight
any problem areas for the child and find ways
of overcoming them. A pre-school PEP is also
being developed to identify the learning needs
of children under five.
Bringing together all the key people involved in
this way can make PEPs very effective in
initiating positive change.
Designated teachers
All schools have a designated teacher for
looked after children, who monitors their
performance and attendance and is normally
the person who attends the PEP meetings and
reviews. They provide day to day educational
support and advice for the child. Our
designated teachers are Mrs Wheatley and Mr
Rex for this academic year - Sept 2011-July
2012
Setting targets at schools
In addition to PEPs, the School Improvement
Service team work closely with schools in
setting achievable academic targets for all
looked after children.
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