Virtual School

In September 2021, the Virtual School’s role was extended to include strategic responsibility for promoting the educational outcomes of the cohort of children that have been assessed as needing or previously needing a social worker (CWSW).

This includes any children aged 0– 18 who are, or have been, supported by a Child In Need plan (CIN) or Child Protection plan (CP) for safeguarding and/or welfare reasons within the past 6 years. 

Promoting the education of children with a social worker – Virtual School Head role extension (Updated June 2022)

Meet the CWSW core team  

The multi-agency team is made up from a range of professionals committed to working in collaboration to improve outcomes for NELC children with a social worker.

For information or guidance please contact Michelle McMahon or Melanie Graves in the first instance. 

• Michelle McMahon – Strategic lead [email protected]
• Dr Louise Jarvis – Senior Educational Psychologist
• Linda Manley – Informatics Analyst 
• Vicky Carmichael – Education Welfare Officer
• Necia Fraser – Early Help Co-Ordinator 
• Sarah Blanchard – Head of Service, Court and Child Protection
• Abigail Stevens – Assistant  Educational Psychologist [email protected]

Why is the Virtual School taking on this role?

Virtual Schools are already successfully raising aspirations and promoting the educational achievement of looked-after children and the cohort of previously looked-after children. 

Unlike looked-after children, or previously looked-after children, the cohort of children with a social worker who are subject to CiN plans or CP plans have not had the benefit of a strategic leader that is able to champion their educational needs and help them make educational progress.

The Virtual School is experienced in helping education settings and local authorities work together and can offer advice and support to teachers and social workers, with the aim of narrowing the attainment gap.

Why is this action needed?

The Government’s Children in Need review (June 2019) evidenced that Children with a Social Worker:

• do significantly worse than others at all stage of their education and poor outcomes persist even after social work involvement ends. 
• are 3 times more likely to be persistently absent.
• are 2-4 times more likely to be permanently excluded.
• are 10 times more likely to attend alternative provision settings.
• many CWSW go on to become Looked After.
• have experienced as more significant detrimental influence on their learning than all children due to the pandemic and related restrictions.

What will we do?

Rather than working directly with children, the Virtual School is committed to assisting our professional partners who best know the young people and their families. 

This can be achieved through the 3 critical activity streams:

Enhancing partnerships between education and social care, to work together in a child focused manner, to establish shared priorities and with high aspirations to drive change.

Identifying the needs of the cohort and addressing barriers to poor educational outcomes to ensure pupils make educational progress.

Offering advice and support to key professionals such as Social Workers, Designated Safeguarding Leads, Designated Teachers, and school leaders to help children make progress, including through increasing their confidence in using evidence-based interventions.

We will:

• Encourage settings and agencies to adopt a Relational Approach in both universal practice and in focussed interventions for those in need of more intensive support.  This necessitates a firm belief in the power of relationships; acknowledging that all behaviour is a form of communication and use of emotion coaching methods.
• Bring greater awareness to the disadvantage that CWSW can experience due to the impact of adverse experiences such as domestic violence, neglect and substance misuse.
• Promote engagement in education and help to narrow the attainment gap using a strengths-based model.
• Work closely with the Director of Children’s Services to understand the needs of children with a social worker within NELC and consider how best to improve their educational outcomes, attendance, and mental health and wellbeing.
• Make use of peer support to share learning and develop good practice.

How will we do it? 

Training

We are in the process of developing a series of workshops, practise sharing events and networking opportunities for NELC partners.

For upcoming events go to the Virtual School Training tab.

Please complete our sign up form for notifications of future events.

Resources    

A growing collection of materials that we have found useful:

PASS – Pupil Attitude to Self and School

PASS – GL Assessment

Psychometric Assessments to identify underlying causes for barriers to learning:

“It is a great way of very quickly collecting the perspectives of children and teenagers.  Including from those who are not always able to talk about their feelings or their own views” Dr Louise Jarvis – Senior Educational Psychologist

The ATTEND framework

Brighton & Hove Inclusion Support Service (BHISS) (brighton-hove.gov.uk)

Attendance framework analysis and intervention:

“The ATTEND Framework was developed within Brighton & Hove City Council as an early intervention programme for school-aged pupils between 5 and 16 years when attendance drops below 90%. It aims to identify all of the contributing factors when attendance is low.”

We believe early intervention is key to the successful implementation of our offer. Our approach is rooted in research such as that published by The Education Endownment Foundation (EEF)