Virtual School for Children in Care

Cornwall Virtual School

Virtual School for Children in Care

CiCESS Self-Evaluation– January 2018

West 3, New County Hall. Truro

Links and reference to:

SEN & SEC SEF
Education Strategy
One Vision
SEND strategy
SEND graduated response strategy
Service plan

Contents:

Virtual School context

Deployment of staff

Leadership, Management & Governance

Safeguarding

Challenges for the future

Target setting

Data 2017

Attendance & exclusions

Virtual Nursery School

Previously looked after children (PLAC) - Adopted Children, SGO, CAO support & guidance

Children placed out of county

Training

Consulting & listening to children

Service plan targets & Performance management 2017

Appendices: How the Virtual School delivers the statutory service

Context

key prioritiespromote the educational attainmentand achievement of Children in Care, under section 52 of the Children Act 2004 and to fulfil the statutory requirements as described in “Promoting the education of looked after children statutory guidance for Local Authorities”(DfE, July 2014.)under revision by DFE

The Virtual School (VS) is centrally based, part of the School Effectiveness Cornwall (SEC), in Education & Early Years.Our aim isto respond to the needs of children in care at both a strategic and operational level. The team provides support and challenge to schools, education settings and agencies that work with Children in Care, and forms part of the response to the Raising Aspiration and Achievement Strategy (RAAS) Priority Two – to raise standards and increase the achievement of: the most able, the most vulnerable
The VS works in line with the Cornwall Education Strategy 2017
The VS comprises of: Headteacher (VSH), 1 Administration Officer(0.8), 1 Admin (0.2), 1 Senior lead practitioner, 6 Learning & Achievement advisors, one of which is a Senior Advisor, a mental health & wellbeing coordinator and PEP Coordinator, Education welfare officer and new in post, Educational Psychologist.The Headteacherreports to the Head of School Effectivenessand ultimately to the Service Director.
Our Service delivery and core duties have remained unchanged despite a re-structure and re-focus in April 2016
We work in partnership with education, social care, health, fostering, adoption, clinical & educational psychology, agencies within the Children, families & adults Directorate and external providers in private and voluntary settings.
The Virtual schoolhas co-located hot desks with social care and 16+ team across Cornwall Council offices: St John’s hall (West), Dolcoath (west), Truro (mid), St Austell (mid), Bodmin (east).We attend social care team meetings and ‘hot desk’ in their offices where possible.

The Virtual School main base is New County Hall. The team are co-located supporting integrated working with Social care, School Effectiveness Cornwall, SEND, School admissions and Infrastructure.

As of 03/01/2018 the Cornish Virtual School roll is502(103 are non-Cornish), 399 Cornish. In June it was 403, 110 non-Cornish:

School Stage / NCY / Total
Post 16 / Year 13 / 47
Year 12 / 65
Post 16 Total / 112
Secondary Age / Year 11 / 58
Year 10 / 75
Year 9 / 39
Year 8 / 29
Year 7 / 34
Secondary Age Total / 235
Primary Age / Year 6 / 27
Year 5 / 25
Year 4 / 16
Year 3 / 16
Year 2 / 18
Year 1 / 11
Reception / 13
Primary Age Total / 126
Pre-School (NCY-1/-2) / (-1) 17
(-2) 10 / 29
Grand Total / 502

Special Educational needs

CiC – prevalence and characteristics

Prevalence: 2016/17 43.1% of children who were CiC continuously for 12 months, for whom data were available, had a special educational need , consisting of 24% with a statement of EHC plan and 19% on SEN support. This compares to 56.8% of children with no SEN.

Current live data Autumn 2017:

As of December 2017 there are 19% of CiC on SEN support. CiC with EHCP has reduced to 24%of the VS population = 122 on EHCP/Statements.

*Due to the change to an EPEP system the current data for those children with SEND that are making progress will not be available until Spring 2018.

Deployment of the team to support CiC: ‘ meeting the needs of our individual learners’

As of the end of the autumn term, the Virtual school has supported 420 children since September. This support includes:

School monitoring visits
phone, email advice and guidance
Attendance at PEP meetings, Education planning meetings, Professionals meeting and Care/EHCP reviews, should the young person need Virtual school support/intervention.
direct face to face teaching and support

As a result of feedback from Designated Teachers, it was identified Schools felt direct 1:1 intervention by specialist learning advisorswas having the most significant impact on CiC, who were not at age related expectations. The majority of VS support in the 2017-2018 academic year to datehas been through direct face to face sessions. Up to the end of the autumn term 2017, the Learning advisors have worked on 420 separate CiC cases. The majority of the workload has been advice, guidance and support = 52.8%. The direct work has been spread across the county: East 5.9%, Mid 10.7%, West 6.6% according to where our CiC are placed at school and in placement. Support was equally distributed between the key stages with emphasis on study support and Social, emotional and wellbeing support at KS3 and 4 and academic/Thrive support with KS1 &2.

Outcome and impact: The recent restructure of the team has been instrumental, in the achievement of these results, therefore providing a more effective and efficient service to young people and their education provisions.

Where capacity allows, we monitor, support and track all non-Cornish CIC in our education settings- there are currently103children placed in Cornwall by other Local Authorities.
We have 67 CiC placed out of County – we commission monitoring visits to settings that are non-mainstream out of county
There is a strong emphasis on improvingboth areas through direct work with CiC, both in school (e.g.Learning Advisors working in class to support ) & on a 1:1 basis, where appropriate (e.g.Lead practitioner / Senior Learning Advisor working in other settings to re-engage & support a return to school) as well as supporting all agencies. In the last academic year 2016/2017, from analysis of data, our key target groups have been Y5 into Y6,yr7, Y10 and Yr11.

Outcomes of interventions have led to successful school moves, avoidance of permanent exclusions, positive impact on attainment and progress and improved mental health & well-being.
We continue to target pupils where progress is below expectations. OurLearning Advisorscontinue to work on study support with pupils in Year 10 and Year 11and oversee transition points
Monitoring exclusions and school attendance via the Virtual School EWO
Quality of PEPs, timeliness and extracting data from PEPs – this system changed in September 2017 due to the implementation of the new Welfare Call Electronic PEP (EPEP)

The Virtual School has expanded since its creation in 2009 and now monitors CIC from the age of 3 in the Virtual Nursery school.
We have also strengthened our work as a Virtual College to ensure tracking of attainment, progress and destination continues at 16+. We have tracking and information on our post 16 children, some of whom have now left care and therefore information is sometimes harder to obtain.
We are also monitoring, from a distance, our care leavers attending University (22 attending this year). The number attending University has risen year on year and is currently our highest number accessing this provision.

Outcome and impact of staff deployment:

The impact of this support has been an increased presence in schools, stronger relationships built with schools and social care and a closer monitoring of individual pupil progress. The CIC supported by the VS team have all made better than or expected progress since the start of the support. Due to the re-structure the VS has more ‘reach’ across Cornwall and is able to offer more support and guidance to all agencies.

Leadership and Management

The Headteacher of the Virtual School (VSH)isa member of The Corporate Parent managers Board
The VSH, senior Lead practitioner andsenior learning Advisor attend the weekly area Social Care led Resource & Care panels along with attendingPupil performance sub-group at the APA’s, meeting half termly with six monthly data sharing meetings when the performance of all schools is reviewed by senior officers. The VSH is the education lead on the CSE and Misper weekly area forums and the single point of contact for the MAPPA strategic management board

Team roles: Each member of staff carries a specific area of responsibility in the Virtual School structure:
Head of The Virtual School – Emma Phillips -Designated safeguarding lead (DSL)- CMOE / CSE/ Misper
Lead Practitioner & SENCO – Chloe Phillips -Complex case work& Primary lead
Senior Learning Advisor – Jacqui Lewis -Complex case work & Secondary lead
Learning Advisor & MOMO lead - Phil Carpenter
Learning Advisor & Thrive - Devina Savani
Learning Advisor & 16+/ UASC – Bev Coode
Learning Advisor & Outdoor Ed / Mental health & well- being – Debi Annear
Learning Advisor & PLAC lead – Jemma Bullock
PEPco & Learning Advisor– Lauren Hufford
Education Welfare Officer – Vicky Thornton
Educational Psychologist -
Business admin – Sue O’Neill / Ann Kemp

Outcome and impact:

This team structure allows for expertise in specific areas and points of contact for our partner agencies leading to a more integrated approach.

All Schools, Early Years Settings and FE establishments have Designated Teachers / Co-ordinators for CiC – the Directory is updated on a termly basis and is available on CiCESS website:

Governance

The Governing Body for the Virtual Schoolhas been in place for fouryears. Representation includes: Secondary and Primary representatives, carers, young people, elected members, staff and voluntary sector. A training programme has been implemented for governors. Governors monitor performance in key areas – linked to both statutory duties and service plan priorities. E.g.Progress & Attainment and Achievement, EPep’s, early years, Attendance & exclusions.

The Head of the Virtual School attends the Corporate Parenting managers groupand Board and reports back to the Service Directorate Senior leadership team.

The VSService Plan covers all statutory and non-statutory duties and is reviewed in line with CC policy. It contains specific and measurable targets and milestones including statutoryand national targets, as well as non-statutory local targets. The Service Planis reviewed and revised at regular intervals both by the Virtual School Senior management team and by the Governing Body.

Safeguarding – effectiveness in safeguarding CiC in Cornwall

DSL / CSE / CMOE Misper lead – VSH Emma Phillips

Staff are updated on safer working practice & managing allegations annually. Training has been undertaken on the interagency referral form and the use of Risk Assessments / Lone working policies areprioritised when working with our CiC.
Virtual School policies reflect the procedure and practice that takes place within the team and in Cornwall. The team are given annual child protection tier 1 training. The whole Virtual school,received training with Reconstruct in summer2016. Governors need to update training.
The Virtual School submits the S175 /157 and Declaration of compliance annually. We work with the SCP (LSCB) Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy. We adhere to both documents re. Keeping children safe in education / Working together to safeguard children
Virtual school audits Safeguarding twice a year and reports back to Governors twice a year
Weekly MACSE (Misper & CSE) area forums are attend by the VSH, SLP &SLA – these are becoming an increasingly important information sharing forum with intelligence shared and followed up on our most vulnerable young people in Cornwall/. Strong links with the weekly Resource & Care panels ensures consistency of approach and information is maintained by the VSH
CMOE/ CME / Reduced timetable meetings are held – these are attended by the VSH, Head of School Effectiveness and SEC team. Information is shared with regards to young people at risk of CSE and misper as these meetings. All children are cross referenced and discussed using the four P’s – prepare, protect, pursue, prevent model at the MACSE forums held weekly

Outcome and impact: the safeguarding support and monitoring has led to a more robust approach with more quality information sharing between agencies and alerts made to appropriate agencies. Actions to ‘disrupt’ behaviours are taken by all agencies when required, followed up robustly and recorded. This has resulted in safety plans and risk assessments being drawn up, responsibility and accountability share amongst the corporate parents around each child

Challenges for the future – how to effectively improve outcomes for CIC in Cornwall

To work with schools on how they are assessing pupil progress 2017/18, in light of the new National Curriculum and ‘life after levels’
To continue to close the gap in attainment and achievement between Children in care and all children.
To ensure CIC have full and appropriate access to appropriate and impact led Pupil Premium Plus / Early years PP+ from day one of being a child in care
To continue to raise standards of achievement, attainment and progressin all Key Stages, particularly in Key stage 2 and Key stage 4,so that they become, against all comparators, in line or better than the national averages for Children in Care
To reduce exclusionssignificantly due to a current rising trend
To ensure every CiC has an up-to-date, relevant EPEP- PEPs have a positive impact on the educational outcomes for children and young people.
To ensure that all CiCbelow statutory school age have access to an appropriate and quality early years education
To work with the county CSE strategy – schools and agencies
To continue to develop effective multi-agency working at an operational level
To further develop effective corporate parenting across agencies within the local authority
To maintain Healthy Schools status (awarded 2012) and Mental health & wellbeing
To work with and support the SEN Code of Practice
To identify new creative projects
To offer advice & guidance for PLAC (SGO, CAO and adoption support)

Target setting – this takes place in the autumn term annually by Virtual School SMT with FFT / Raise online /LAIT

Target setting for the 2017 Key stage 2 cohort are set as follows:-

Targets / 2016 / Actual / Target for 2017
Percentage of eligible cohort gaining Reading at Level 4+ / 63% Secure
19% Mastery / 42%
5 expected
(2gds)
LAIT QUARTILE
A / 28% at
4% above
Percentage of eligible cohort gaining Writing at Level 4+ / 63 % secure
13% Mastery / 50%
6 expected
(0 gds)
LAIT QUARTILE
C / 24% at
0% above
Percentage of eligible cohort gaining Mathematics at Level 4+ / 69% Secure
13% Mastery / 42%
5 expected
(1 gds)
LAIT QUARTILE
C / 24% at
0% above
Percentage of eligible cohort gaining Reading, Writing and mathematics at Level 4+ / 81% / 33%
4 expected
(0 gds)
LAIT QUARTILE
B
Percentage of eligible cohort making two levels progress in Reading / -0.5
Lower confidence -3.9
Upper confidence 3.0
LAIT QUARTILE
C
RANK 63
Percentage of eligible cohort making two levels progress in Writing / -3.6
Lower confidence -7.0
Upper confidence -0.2
LAIT QUARTILE
D
RANK 118
Percentage of eligible cohort making two levels progress in Mathematics / -1.5
Lower confidence -4.4
Upper confidence 1.5
LAIT QUARTILE
C
RANK 71
Combined Eng & Ma / 40% towards
56% at
28% above

Targets for KS4 2017 for all CiC (37 CiC): in line with FFT

Targets / 2016 Actual
A*-C inc En and Ma / Targets for 2017
A*-G inc En and Ma
Percentage of eligible cohort gaining 5A* to C / 31.7% / 38%
Percentage of eligible cohort gaining 5A* to C inc En and Ma / 27.5% / 27%
Attainment 8 score / 26.0% / 30%
Progress 8 score / -0.79 / -0.69

DATA 2016 (OC2 cohorts for KS1;KS2;KS4)

Quality of Provision accessed by Children in Care to Cornwall-80% of our children in care attend good or better provision overall (76% in previous year)

Early Years Foundation Stage 2016

Cohort of 5 pupils

Number of pupils with a good level of development :- 2

Number of pupils in the bottom 20% :- 2

Keystages 1, 2 and 4

NOTE -

The national curriculum and school performance indicators changed in 2016, with scaled scores replacing levels.
The expected standard for pupils in 2016 is higher than the expected standard in previous years (e.g. Level 2 or Level 4).
No direct comparison is possible between 2016 performance and the previous performance indicators. (i.e. Level 2+ AND Level 4+ or average points scores and new indicators – percentage working at or above % Expected Standard and Scaled Scores).

Key Stage 1 – 2016 Attainment – qualifying Cohort of 11 children

The provisional qualifying cohort in KS1 comprised 11 children

Key Stage 1 - Attainment 2016 provisional qualifying cohort

Key Stage 1 percentage at or above the expected standard / Reading / Writing / Maths
Cornwall - 2016
(11 pupils) / 36%
(4 pupils) / 27%
(3 pupils) / 45%
(5 pupils)
South West
(110 pupils) / 51% / 33% / 47%
National (CiC)
(1820 pupils) / 50% / 37% / 46%
National (other)
(640210 pupils) / 74% / 70% / 79%
Cornwall Gap to National Other / -38% / -43% / -34%
South West Gap to National Other / -24% / -37% / -32%
National CiC Gap to National Other / - 24% / - 33% / - 33%
Key Stage 1 percentage achieving at Level 2+ / Reading / Writing / Maths
2015 (5 pupils) / 60% (71%) / 60% (63%) / 100% (73%)
2014 (4 pupils) / 100% (71%) / 100% (61%) / 100% (72%)
2013 (6 pupils) / 83% (69%) / 67% (61%) / 67% (71%)

*England CiC average in brackets.

Key Stage 1 Progress 2016- Qualifying Cohort

Progress from EYFS to the end of Key stage 1 :

Reading – (10 children with data)

Below average progress3

Satisfactory or better progress 7

Good progress 0

Writing – (10 children with data)

Below average progress 2

Satisfactory or better progress 8

Good progress1

Mathematics – (10 children with data)

Below average progress 4

Satisfactory or better progress 6

Good progress 1

Key Stage 2 – 2016 Attainment - Qualifying Cohort of 12 pupils

(LAIT QUARTILE C is the National Average)

Key Stage 2 percentage at or above the expected standard / Reading
Expected or (better) / Writing
Expected or (better) / Maths
Expected
or (better) / Reading, Writing and Mathematics / Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
Cornwall - 2016
(12 pupils)[1] / 42%
5 expected
(2gds)
LAIT QUARTILE
A / 50%
6 expected
(0gds)
LAIT QUARTILE
C / 42%
5 expected
(1gds)
LAIT QUARTILE
C / 33%
4 expected
(0gds)
LAIT QUARTILE
B / 46%
8 expected
(0gds)
LAIT QUARTILE
B
DFE OC2 Cohort
(15 pupils) / suppressed / suppressed / suppressed / suppressed / 46%
South West
( 200 pupils) / 39% / 37% / 36% / 23% / 41%
National (CiC)
2820 pupils Reading
2800 pupils Writing
2820 Mathematics
2820 GPS
2800 RWM / 41% / 49% / 41% / 25% / 44%
National (other)
(c.589000 pupils dependent on subject) / 66% / 74% / 70% / 54% / 73%
Cornwall Gap to National Other / -24% / -24% / -28% / -21% / -28%
South West Gap to National Other / -27% / -27% / -34% / -31% / -32%
National Gap to National Other / -25% / - 25% / -29% / -29% / -29%

Key Stage 2 attainment qualifying cohort