Management Information Sheet

This MI sheet is an update to MI 238/15 which communicated some key changes to the construction, approach and content of Personal Education Plans for all Norfolk Children in Care.

User training in respect of the electronic Personal Education Plan (ePEP) is taking place this month, with further sessions being scheduled for April. If you are responsible for the completion of PEP documentation for Norfolk's Looked After Children it is essential you book onto one of the sessions. The attached flyer details all the training dates. Once staff have attended the training, they will be issued with a password and login details and subsequent PEPs will be completed using the ePEP model.

Why are we changing the PEPs?

An internal audit of the quality of Norfolk Personal Education Plans was undertaken in April 2015. The audit looked at a number of PEPs across all seven districts in the county and outcomes of this audit demonstrated that too many PEPs are not accurately capturing the child's education journey. Furthermore, many contain outdated information and lack the child's voice. The audit made a number of recommendations which will be supported by the introduction of an electronic system of Personal Education Plans, known as ePEPs.

In July 2015 the LA inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers identified that 'education plans are poor and do not identify how children will get the best possible chance to achieve at school'.

'The quality of the vast majority of personal education plans (PEPs) is also poor. Information about attainment history is missing and targets are not specific or challenging enough. Children's and young people's views are not always evident. This suggests that PEPs are not used effectively to plan and evaluate support for children's education and to promote and raise children's aspirations. The local authority's own audit of PEPs (May 2015) identified a number of areas in which it is not meeting its statutory duties in this respect. ' OFSTED July 2015.

What are we doing?

Training on the use of the ePEP has been made available to all staff who are involved in the completion of PEPs. Once training has been completed, the Designated Teacher will be able to access all the ePEPs relating to children in care who are on roll at your school. If a child joins the school, the Designated Teacher will be able to access their existing ePEP as soon as Welfare Call are notified that the pupil has joined the school roll.

What are the benefits of an ePEP?

The benefits of an ePEP are that:

• The quality can and must be improved to reflect sharp and ambitious educational targets and objectives;
• Templates are readily updated and will keep abreast of statutory and local requirements;
• PEPs will be easy to collate, monitor and evaluate (inadequate PEPs will be followed up by the Virtual school in a timely fashion);
• Additional documents can be uploaded to support the PEP enabling them to be personalised;
• We can achieve 100% completion (as other LAs do that use an ePEP) as the timeliness will be closely monitored and schools and social workers will be prompted.

What can you do to improve the quality of PEPs now?

It is important that every looked after child has a good quality PEP which is reviewed termly. It may be useful for your Designated Teacher to review the quality of your in school PEPs. We would ask that this task is prioritised, ensuring that the voice of the child is properly and appropriately reflected in the PEP and that as far as possible it is a comprehensive and enduring record of the child's experience, progress and achievement (academic and otherwise). The PEP should be able to inform any discussion about education during the statutory review of the child's wider care plan. Targets should be SMART in both the short term and should also include evidence of longer term planning for education outcomes for the child. Many schools have requested Pupil Premium Plus funding and have given the Virtual School plans for how this funding is to be used. This should be built into the PEP and should be related clearly to the targets agreed for the child's academic achievement.

NEW - Additional support for schools

The Virtual School is establishing multi-agency network meetings. The dates are events are shown below and the focus for these first events will be PEPs, SMART targets and Pupil Premium. A flyer will be circulated shortly with booking details, the dates are:

Actions to note:

• Designated Teachers and Designated Governors responsible for LAC are encouraged to review the quality of existing PEPs and make recommendations to the Headteacher for improvements in forthcoming PEP meetings as detailed above.
• Designated Teachers are asked to book onto an EPEP Essential User Training session.

For further information and queries please contact Keeley White (Head of the Virtual School for Children in Care) keeley.white@norfolk.gov.uk or Wendy Rudd (Virtual School Development Manager) wendy.rudd@norfolk.gov.uk.