Supporting the education of looked after children
Many children and young people in care have experienced great personal upheaval. This disruption to home life and education can prevent them from reaching their academic potential.
Children and young people in care often make up a large percentage of those that are excluded from school, fail to attend school, suffer from emotional behavioural difficulties or have special educational needs.
There are significant gaps between what they and their class mates achieve. Special measures are needed to overcome this problem.
How are schools supporting looked after children?
Find out about support for looked after children at schools in East Sussex.
How do Children’s Services help looked after children?
Special projects and teams
For more information see our page how Children’s Services is supporting the education of looked after children.
Our strategy
The government has published recommendations on how to improve the care and education of young people:
Following this guidance we have drawn up a strategy to ensure that young people in care receive the support they need. Please see our page Promoting the Education of Children in Care Strategy.
Other key policies and plans
The Children Act 2004 gave local authorities clear guidelines to make all children a central priority in policies and planning across social care, health and education. For the broader context visit our page working together – partnerships, policies and plans.
Information sharing and assessment
The needs of looked after children are better met if all the agencies supporting them work together. Children's services and health care services work closely to make sure that the care of looked after children is well co-ordinated. We collect basic information about who is involved with each child to help monitor their needs and track their progress. For more about this, see our pages about improving services for children and young people.
Contact TEST (The Education Support Team)
For more information on the education of looked after children please contact the TEST team.
