The team comprises of the following Education focused staff:

Strategy Leader, Teacher, Education Welfare Officer – Fostered, Teaching Assistant – Fostered, Education Welfare Officer – Residential, Residential Support, Senior Mentor, Senior Educational Psychologist, Administrative Support

The work of the team is focused on the:

• individual in care
• Local Authority Homes that they belong to
• schools that educate them and other outside agencies that work with the young people

The team’s responsibility is to ensure the best interests of the child, and at the same time enable them to access relevant services that may be needed to support them.

The aim of the team is to identify ‘Looked After’ children in the education system and support their needs to increase their opportunities for achievement. The work is primarily focused on targets in the Education Development Plan and the Behaviour Support Plan that relate to exclusion, attendance and under-achieving pupils. We focus our work on Children Looked After in LEA Residential Homes and Foster Care placements who are significantly under-achieving, have poor attendance and, when they do attend, are disproportionately excluded from school.

Of greater concern are those who fail to secure a school place following a change in their care arrangements. In this context, those particularly at risk are children who move foster care placements.