Personal Educational Plan (PEP) and the Virtual School
The Personal Education Plan (PEP) is a statutory requirement. All looked after children must have a current Personal Education Plan, which forms part of their Care Plan.
Guidance on completing the PEP
Please read the following information carefully before completing the PEP.
Each term a new PEP document for each of our Looked After Children (LAC) will be started by the Virtual School. The form ID and password will be e-mailed to the Designated Teacher (DT) of LAC that we hold on record for that child/young person. The DT is then responsible for completing the form as fully as possible, prior to that term’s PEP meeting, so that the information on the form is available for discussion by all in attendance. After the meeting, you will be advised by the Virtual School as to what changes are required on the form before this can be submitted. Once you have made these changes, use the print function to create and save a PDF file of the form. You will then e-mail your child/young person’s Education Advisor at the Virtual School, to notify them that the form is ready for submission. The Education Advisor will submit the form and the Virtual School PEP co-ordinator will send this to the child/young person’s social worker to distribute to parents/carers as appropriate. The DT is responsible for ensuring that the PEP is shared with the wider school staff as appropriate and for ensuring that the PEP is implemented within the school/education setting(s) as appropriate.
All children in care must have a Personal Education Plan as part of their care plan. The care plan is incomplete without a current PEP.
The Personal Education Plan:
- is a record of educational progress
- promotes the educational achievement of a young person in care
- is a mechanism for consulting, listening to and involving the young person in their educational progress
- strengthens collaborative approaches to supporting our looked after children
- enhances continuity for and raises the expectations and self-esteem of the young person
- ensures that issues and difficulties within education can be identified early and addressed promptly
- acknowledges achievement and celebrates success
Best Practise - Prior to a PEP meeting, DTs should please ensure they have collated the following and recorded this on the PEP form:
- the young person’s views around their education
- a Reading Age that is less than a year old*
- a Teacher SDQ score that is less than a year old*
- a young person’s SDQ score that is less than a year old for children in Year 5 and above
- detailed, celebratory and informative feedback from all teachers and staff working with the young person
- specific feedback reviewing the previous term’s PEP targets
- other information requested by the form, such as that relating to attendance
***(NB if a Reading Age or Teacher SDQ target was set at the last PEP, a new Reading Age/Teacher SDQ will be required for this PEP, so that the target can be reviewed, even when the last recorded data is less than a year old.)