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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. 16
The Base Resource List These are some of the curriculum's we use: Improving Behaviour Anger Management Learning Mentor Resource Book (covers motivation/anger/loss/stress/attitude/family breakdown etc) Personal Development Welcome to Friendship Working with challenging behaviour Helping you manage grief fear and anger Pregnancy book Alcohol alert Emotional Survival Anger Control Activities Getting There (transition) Personal Safety curriculum Making the best of me Strictly stress Facts of life Muddles puddles and sunshine (bereavement) On the booze, again Stoned Peer Mentoring Thinking out of the box The big book of blobs Quality Circle Time 17
Page 1 and 2: Inclusion at Whitley Academy www.wh
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Page 5 and 6: Learning Support Caseworkers Kane H
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Page 9 and 10: What is Counselling A Young person
Page 11: Every Child deserves to: Be health
Page 15: Circle Time Circle time is a way st

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