PEP Advice

A core element of the educational support offered to all cared for children is the PEP or Personal Education Plan.

This is a document which is created during termly PEP meetings and which captures the education views of cared for children, their school, carers and social workers. It also records specific education targets aimed to help cared for children reach their goals and should also demonstrate how Pupil Premium Plus funding is going to be used to support this.

Targets should be accompanied with strategies to achieve them and time frames for impact to be seen. It is the joint responsibility of schools and social workers to organise the PEP and make sure that the views of the young person are accurately reflected.

 

Questions We Recommend You Ask

Academic Performance

• Are they achieving what is expected of them (in terms of the national average for their age group) in English/Maths?
  • If not, how far behind are they and how significant is this?
• Why does school/child think they aren't achieving as well as they should be doing?
• What can the school/carer do to help them catch up?
• Is the school providing the pupil with one-to-one tuition?
• Would the pupil benefit from weekly home tuition?
• What progress would you expect them to make in the next 6-12 months?
  • If that progress isn't made do you think they should be put onto the SEN code of practice?
• What subjects do they enjoy the most/least? What can we do to help them enjoy the subjects they do not like much?
• For children with significant educational needs it is helpful to ask the school what they believe to be the over-arching educational need/focus.

 Social Interactions

• What are their relationships like with adults/other children?
• Does the child have any difficulty making and keeping friends?
  • If this is an issue what can be done to help them?
• How do children/adults respond to them?
• Do you think they are vulnerable to bullying/have bullied others?
• What does the bullying look like, when is it taking place, during unstructured times?
• What can be done to prevent the bullying?

 
Behaviour of the Child

• Are there any behavioural concerns?
  • If so, what inappropriate behaviours do they display?
• What does school/child think triggers these behaviours?
  • What lessons/times of the day do these behaviours happen?
• What strategies have been tried to change the behaviour?
  • How successful were they? What else can be tried?
• How can the carer/social worker help?

• Does emotional distress affect their learning?
• Has the LA behaviour support team been asked for advice?
• If there were any exclusions, find out what they were for and how significant the school view the exclusions. Also, what actions are being taken to try and improve child's behaviour and help prevent another exclusion occurring?

 

Questions You May Be Asked 

• Do they bring the appropriate equipment to school?
• Do they do homework on time and is it done well?
• If there are homework issues what suggestions can school make to help child and carer?
• How do you encourage them to do their homework?
• Do you feel they enjoy reading with/to you?
• What interests do you think could be developed outside of school?

 

Setting Targets

• It is important that the child should be asked what they would like to achieve in school over the next 6 months. 1-3 targets should be agreed with the child. The child's targets should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed.
• There should be at least one academic target and this should be related to education information discussed. Maths, English and Science should be considered priorities.

 

What Happens Next

• A new date is set to review the PEP, normally in the next school term. However additional educational meetings can be held if there are issues that need more support or feedback.
• The PEP is submitted to the Virtual School in a timely manner, normally within two weeks after the meeting.
• The PEP is quality assured, financial information logged and loaded onto LCS so that the Social Worker can share as needed.
• Any supporting documents are also added to LCS as the PEP may be submitted with provision maps, behaviour plans, achievements, examples of work, termly reports etc

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