It was very special to see new friendships being made, young people with some very traumatic backgrounds stepping out of their comfort zone and challenging themselves, learning that they can do things they really did not think possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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4. Improving outcomes for children in care<\/h2>\n\n\n\nPersonal Education Plans<\/h3>\n\n\n\n For the last few years, post pandemic we have worked on a hybrid model where every child has at least one face-to-face meeting which we have attended, also two virtual PEP meetings most of which we have attended. We feel our work is based on positive relationships with our children, carers, social care colleagues and schools and that these are best formed in person. We work to support schools in owning the PEP as the central point of information about the child`s education journey. We advise on targets and positive use of Pupil Premium Plus funding. We have good relationships with our schools, early years providers and post-16 colleges, working together to ensure that every young person has a termly PEP and that it is of high quality, helping improve outcomes and support carers to help the child. This autumn we will be reviewing our attendance at PEPS due to the increasing number of CiC and the need for our schools and social care colleagues to lead on the PEP process. We will continue to attend where required and quality assure all the documents, offering constructive feedback to move learning on for our children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nWe continue to work with schools to complete PEPs within 5 working days of the meeting and can see improvements. We appreciate that Designated Teachers are extremely busy and focus on the quality of the meeting and the outcomes for each child. We regularly moderate the quality assurance of each PEP within the VS Team and have seen the quality of PEPs increase, with a higher percentage now being recorded as good. We continue with training for Designated Teachers on their role where we look at what makes a good PEP with 68 taking up the offer this academic year. Completed PEPs are now sent termly to Carers and uploaded onto the Social Care database Eclipse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Training<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Throughout the year we have been able to offer Designated Teachers, other school staff, Social Workers and Foster Carers a fully-funded training offer to support their work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAttachment Based Mentoring for schools: training for school staff to help them effectively support children with attachment difficulties and those who have suffered from Adverse Childhood Experiences. Our aim is that every secondary school in Devon has at least one member of staff who has attended the training, which is incredibly popular and always over-subscribed. It has been specifically developed for Children in Care on behalf of the Virtual School by the Educational Psychology and SEMH Teams and has been offered both virtually and face-to-face – it is incredibly popular and always over-subscribed bringing excellent feedback. There is also a 1-day course for senior leaders as an introduction to the learning.<\/li>\n\n\n\n Training for newly qualified Social Workers has continued, covering the role of the Virtual School and the challenges for Children in Care in schools and now includes newly appointed Personal Advisors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n Training for Foster Carers on supporting Children in Care in education.<\/li>\n\n\n\n Training for Foster Carers on supporting a Child in Care with Special Educational Needs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n A wide range of training for schools fully-funded from Psychology Associates, for example Behaviour and Language Development, Understanding ACE’s, School Non-Attendance, Therapeutic Approaches to Child-Based Play and Suicide Prevention.<\/li>\n\n\n\n Emotional Logic Foundation Award training for schools and an offer of a funded EL Practitioner in school for one day a week to work with children, to give skills to manage classroom learning.<\/li>\n\n\n\n Relational Policy and Practice support.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nRelational Policy and Practice update September 2025<\/h3>\n\n\n\n We have been continuing to work on our project to develop Relational Practice and Policy within schools. Over the past year the focus has been on supporting the Level 2 schools in completing their relational projects and working with the Level 3 schools on their journey to become Beacon Schools where relational approaches are embedded and their expertise in relational practice can be shared with other schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Support for the Level 2 schools has included training for whole school staff, workshops for smaller groups, consultation and supervision for key members of staff, parent workshops, strategy meetings as well as developing targeted approaches on the ground. There is currently a detailed evaluation of the work taking place looking at the impact of this support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have continued to work closely with our Level 3 schools. Much of the work has involved working strategically alongside senior leaders to develop new and alternative systems and policies. In addition we have worked closely with members of staff with a focus on skill development, and this has involved the formation of practice groups involving members of staff across the school. We have also trained some members of staff as coaches so that they can support the development of other staff and ensure that high quality practice is sustained. Our Level 3 schools have identified lead practitioners who are now in a position to provide training and guidance to other schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the schools involved in the project, the work has generated considerable interest in schools across Devon, this has led to us having the opportunity to provide CPD for a wide range of schools that will help them to support their Children in Care and Care Experienced children through the use of relational approaches and relational policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Working with education providers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Information, advice and guidance is provided by Area Learning Advocates and PEP Support Officers as requested. This is supported by our half-termly newsletters and Designated Teacher Network meetings, which are held virtually at the request of schools, they are very well attended with up to 100 Designated Teachers logging in each time for updates and a themed training input.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We purchased Social Emotional Mental Health Practitioner time for schools to access support and guidance around individual cases and time from a Senior Educational Psychologist to work on Emotionally-Based School Non-Attendance (EBSNA) helping to develop ways that schools can re-engage young people where anxiety is preventing attendance. We have also funded one day a week of Speech and Language Consultancy to support schools where they have concerns about how a child can access learning and how the school can best support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nDue to the disruption for the Virtual School, there has been no annual conference held 24\/25. We have two events booked for November 2025 and Spring 2026 to re-instate our conference offer. We have however continued with our well attended Designated teacher networks each term \u2013 a positive learning session this summer with the DFE advisor for PREVENT provided a current picture and update for us all working in Education<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
REDS Programme<\/h3>\n\n\n\n The Virtual School commission the Devon Educational Psychology Service (EPS) and the Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Advisory Teacher team to deliver an intervention to Reduce Exclusions in Devon\u2019s Schools (REDS) for Children in Care or children with care experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The REDS process works by promoting empathy and inclusive practice, in response to challenging or trauma-related behaviours. The aim of the intervention is to reduce the risk of exclusion and increase school placement stability for Children in Care or children with previous care experience. The process involves a package of Educational Psychologist (EP) and SEMH Advisory Teacher support to develop a needs-led understanding of challenging behaviour that informs a comprehensive support plan.
Reflections and next steps<\/h4>\n\n\n\n REDS continues to be a highly successful intervention. A similar number of children were supported this year, and the risk of exclusion was considered to have decreased significantly, on average over 50%.
Examples of support included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nA meeting with the child\u2019s teachers to develop a joint understanding, share the plan and highlight the role of the classroom teacher in providing predictable and reliable support to include the CYP.<\/li>\n\n\n\n Supervision sessions with key staff supporting the child.<\/li>\n\n\n\n Additional training on interventions such as restorative approaches.<\/li>\n\n\n\n Facilitating person-centred planning meetings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n Access to the online Attachment Based Mentoring course and places given on the face-to-face ABM course.<\/li>\n\n\n\n Some schools with several REDS referrals were offered support at a systemic level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
This support was highly valued by staff and enabled the plans to be delivered by skilled and supported members of staff and crucially for the support to be sustained overtime. We will therefore continue to offer this support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year several REDS cases were interrupted due to children accessing alternative provision at the point of referral or partway through the REDS process. This sometimes meant that the process needed to be delayed or restarted due to changes with the adults working with the children. As a result of this issue, we have developed new referral guidelines where children will be referred at an earlier stage, as soon as difficulties are identified, or in some circumstances REDS will be used as a form of reintegration into school following a period of accessing alternative provision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Funding<\/h3>\n\n\n\nPupil Premium<\/h4>\n\n\n\n Pupil Premium should be discussed at the PEP meeting and joint decisions made about the best interventions for each young person to aid accelerated progress. The funding, of up to \u00a3660 per term, is released on completion of the PEP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have been creative again with Pupil Premium funding ensuring that it is used by those who need it most. We have supported some young people at high individual cost with education packages and interventions to enable them to remain included in the school. Examples of this are offering alternative provision for individuals for one day a week and Teaching Assistant support to help them regulate and stay in class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe Pupil Premium Plus funding for the financial year 2024\/25 totalled \u00a31,665,360 and was fully spent by the Virtual School.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The breakdown of spending is as follows:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\u00a3850k \u2013 Support passed to schools (includes termly PP+ requests of \u00a3660 and any additional PP+ funding)<\/li>\n\n\n\n \u00a3495k \u2013 Commissioned support by the Virtual School (includes alternative provision places, tutoring for children as a booster outside their school day or as part of a package, Emotional Logic, etc.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n \u00a3144k \u2013 Contribution towards Virtual School staffing (SEND worker)<\/li>\n\n\n\n \u00a3133k \u2013 Projects and services delivered by Devon EP and SEMH (including EP time, REDs, training, etc.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n \u00a333k \u2013 Cost of licences (ePEP, CLM, and SmartSurvey)<\/li>\n\n\n\n \u00a312k \u2013 Laptops for children and book tokens<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nPersonal Education Allowance<\/h4>\n\n\n\n Our aim is always that a Child in Care should have access to everything we would want for our own children, so applications can be made for funding up to \u00a3300 for children of statutory school age for extra-curricular activities and clubs or other enrichment activities. the financial year 2024\/25, the PEA budget remained the same as in previous years at \u00a364,000 and was almost fully spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We received a total of 258 PEA applications, of which:<\/p>\n\n\n\n