The role of the Virtual School in supporting improved educational outcomes for children in care

ABSTRACT

In England, ‘Virtual Schools’ oversee and support the educational progress of children in care. This paper reports on the analysis of 16 interviews with Virtual School headteachers that were part of two mixed methods research projects on the educational progress of children in care. These interviews explored their role; the types of support they offer young people in care; what they see as the key factors about a young person’s individual characteristics and care experiences that influence their educational outcomes; how schools support young people in care; and the influence of the foster carer/residential staff on the educational outcomes of these children. The interviews were analysed using NVivo and emerging themes were identified informed by the literature on the education of children in care. The paper draws out the main findings which explore the status and role of Virtual Schools in England, their functions, strategies, and what they see as their contribution to improving the educational outcomes of children in care.

KEYWORDS:

• Children in care
• Virtual School Head
• education
• social care

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Virtual School Heads who were interviewed in these two studies for giving up their valuable time to offer insights and to Dr Alun Rees who assisted with the interviews.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In England, the term children looked after is used to describe children in the care of a local authority if a court has granted a care order to place a child in care, or has cared for the child for more than 24 hours.

2. The adoption statistics are experimental as they only include the 30% or so of parents who declare that the child is adopted—which attracts additional resources.

3. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/Pages/lookout.aspx

4. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/683556/Promoting_the_education_of_looked-after_children_and_previously_looked-after_children.pdf

5. A Special Guardianship Order is made by the Family Court which places a child or young person to live with someone other than their parent(s) on a long-term basis.

6. https://www.thriveapproach.com

7. Study 1 was funded by the Nuffield Foundation (Grant: EDU/ 41524), but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. We acknowledge the funding support of the Greater London Authority Schools Excellence Fund for Study 2.

8. For more information on Education Champions see: https://www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/policy-practice/projects-and-programmes/improving-educational-outcomes/fostering-potential

9. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/683556/Promoting_the_education_of_looked-after_children_and_previously_looked-after_children.pdf

10. https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/projects/attachment-awareness/

11. When schools are provided with their results for checking, students whose first language is not English and who arrived from overseas and entered school for the first time after the start of the academic year preceding the year of the examinations can be discounted from the results. See https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/748497/Secondary_accountability_measures_guidance__-_October_2018.pdf

Additional information

Funding

Study 1 was funded by the Nuffield Foundation (Grant: EDU/41524). Study 2 was funded by the Greater London Authority Schools Excellence Fund Project GLA 80557.

Notes on contributors

Judy Sebba

Judy Sebba is a Professor at the Rees Centre for Research on Fostering and Education at the University of Oxford, Department of Education and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science. She was awarded an OBE in 2018. Her research on education of children in care includes the follow-up of the previous Nuffield Foundation-funded Educational progress of children in care (led by Professor David Berridge, University of Bristol and Dr Nikki Luke, University of Oxford) and a large-scale randomised control trial of paired reading with foster carers. We have also evaluated the Attachment Aware Schools Programme in four local authorities and are undertaking national research on the impact of attachment and trauma training in schools funded by the Alex Timpson Foundation. As the Evaluation Coordinator of Wave 1 of the DfE’s Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme, we were involved in setting evaluation standards and seeking to improve the evidence base in children’s social care. More details can be found at: http://reescentre.education.ox.ac.uk/

David Berridge

David Berridge is Professor of Child and Family Welfare at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, England. He was formerly Research Director at the National Children’s Bureau, Research Fellow at the Dartington Social Research Unit, and Director of the Institute of Applied Social Research, University of Bedfordshire. David has been a researcher for 30 years and is author/co-author of 12 books and around 100 other publications. His research specialises particularly on children in public care and living away from home, especially educational disadvantage and residential care. David’s latest projects include a major study of the education of children in care and children in need. He teaches on a range of social work and academic courses to help develop research-minded practitioners. He was awarded the OBE in January 2005 for services to children and has acted as children’s services advisor to the House of Commons Education Select Committee.