Devon County Council

Education of Children in Care

We have to actively promote the education of all our Children in Care and make sure they get support to meet their needs as early as possible. To help do this every Child in Care needs to have an up-to-date Early Years Foundation Stage Personal Education Plan (EYPEP) or Key stage 1-key stage 4 Personal Education Plan (PEP) which is reviewed regularly.

All schools and early years settings should have a designated person who supports Children in Care. This designated person could be the:

• class teacher
• head of year
• Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO).

The designated person will work with the Child in Care’s social worker or care manager to complete and update the EYPEP or PEP to make sure the child gets the support they need when they need it.

All EYPEP and PEP forms and guidance for social care staff and teachers working with Children in Care are available on the Just 4 Schools website.

The Education Welfare Service (EWS)

The Devon Education Welfare Service (EWS) works to make sure that Children in Care have access to any additional support that they may need at key points in their lives. The EWS also acts as a corporate parent and as part of this role is responsible for helping Children in Care celebrate their achievements.

Education Welfare Officers (EWO)

If a pupil at a Devon County Council maintained school is the subject of care proceedings the EWO for the school will be told and will give support as needed. If the EWO needs more information or support to do this they will speak to the specialist EWO for Children in Care for their area.

If a Devon child in care does not have a school place, or if another local authority is considering placing a child in care into Devon, the case will be passed to the appropriate specialist EWO for Children in Care. The specialist EWO will:

• attend planning and strategy meetings as appropriate
• help to get the child a school place
• make sure that the school is involved in creating a Personal Education Plan for the child.

The specialist EWO will then hand the case over to the school-based EWO.

Specialist EWOs for Children in Care are responsible for maintaining an overview of the education of Children in Care on behalf of the EWS.

They will:

• make sure that schools have information and training about the expectations on schools for Children in Care
• help provide training for Devon County Council staff, school staff and independent foster carers
• get attendance data for Children in Care at the end of each term and analyse it
• arrange collection of any other appropriate information about Children in Care which will help EWS celebrate the success of Children in Care in Devon

When a child in care’s attendance is causing concern, the specialist EWO will bring this to the attention of the school EWO. The EWO will open a referral and the specialist EWO will contribute to the casework plan. If attendance issues can’t be sorted out within 12 weeks, the specialist EWO will take over the case, involving Children and young People’s Services as appropriate.