The Virtual School and College for BCP Council gives advice and helps with school, college and employment issues to children and young people who are in care or were a care leaver in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area.

The Virtual School and College for BCP Council key purpose:

• To proactively support all Children in Care (CIC) in partnership with a range of professionals including carers and advocate for high-quality education and employment with training from the age of 2 to 18 and those eligible for care leaver support up to the age of 25
• To retain strategic oversight for all Children with a Social Worker or those living in kinship care arrangements and contribute to the development of high-quality services
• To provide advice for any previously looked after child or young person living within Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole on educational issues based on requests from parents/carers or any other professional

Our priorities are to:

• raise the educational achievement and progress in education of all children in care and care leavers by acting as an advocate and challenging quality at every phase
• offer support, guidance and training to schools, foster carers, social workers and other professionals though our training programme and termly networks
• ensure every child and young person in care has an effective and up to date Personal Education Plan (PEP), for children aged 2 to the age 18 (end of year 13) to enable them to reach or exceed their academic potential
• ensure every young person eligible for care leaver support has a robust plan for education or employment with training, to best prepare them for adult life
• listen to the voice of the child or young person and include these in our strategic and operational planning to help shape our service
• liaise with all agencies and teams involved with children or young people in care to ensure support provided is timely and drift and delay is minimised
• supporting the transition processes for vulnerable children and young people in care to maintain the consistency of high-quality education at all phases

Who are we and what do we do:

The Virtual School and College does not exist in real terms as a building, there are no teachers in classrooms, and children and young people do not attend. It is a service provided by dedicated professionals within the local authority whose work it is to promote and co-ordinate educational support for looked after children, young people and care leavers so that they succeed at an early years setting, school, college and university or any other place of learning.

We aim to ensure that all professionals who work with looked after children, young people and care leavers have high educational aspirations for them so that our pupils and students are given the best opportunities to engage, progress and achieve to their full potential, and are not disadvantaged by their past experiences or vulnerabilities.

We work closely with social care teams, including the Aspire Team, foster carers as well as schools and other educational providers, the Educational Psychology service, the SEN team, the Youth Justice Service and health colleagues.

As soon as a child or young person enters the care of the local authority, they are allocated with a support officer who would be an Advisory Teacher or specialised Education Officer. They work in partnership with all professionals to understand each child or young person's educational needs including any challenges they may face.

The support officer provides professional advice and support to enable children and young people to access the best possible educational provision according to their needs. They also maintain regular contact designated teachers and designated persons in with schools, academies, colleges, training providers, alternative provision and universities.

On a regular basis we coordinate and process Personal Education Plan (PEP) meetings and associated documentation. As part of the PEP the support officer will review all previous planned interventions and associated funding as well as analyse attendance, progress, and achievement data to track, monitor, support and challenge all those involved in the child or young person’s education and welfare. Goal setting and forward planning are done regularly through the year and can be updated between PEP meetings if the need arises.

We publish a Pupil Premium Policy annually that details how we allocate, track, and monitor the use of pupil Premium Plus (PP+) funding and its impact. Under certain circumstances we may use this funding to provide access to additional learning opportunities or specialised alternative provision including one to one tuition.

The team email address is virtual.school@bcpcouncil.gov.uk