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?

Our strategy

The government has published recommendations on how to improve the care and education of young people:

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 the Virtual School for Children in Care

To find out more about the education of looked after children, contact the Virtual School for Children in Care.