Principles and variation of allocation
Overall principles
The virtual school head is responsible for the use of the pupil premium plus grant to improve outcomes for all Lincolnshire children in our care, wherever they live or attend school. The funding will be provided according to the needs of the child.
In the year 2024 to 2025, part of the grant will be used to fund virtual school led interventions delivered by the virtual school. This will be subject to regular review within the PEP process. Lincolnshire County Council and the virtual school head are committed to fulfilling the role of corporate parent so that all children in care can achieve to their full potential. The question ‘would this be good enough for my child?’ is a central one in making decisions and evaluating the effectiveness of the use of the pupil premium plus grant.
Meeting individual need
Examples of reasons for variance of VSH allocation of pupil premium plus grant:
- individual educational needs of children in care vary widely. They can be extremely complex and change significantly over time
- for some children £2,570 is only a fraction of the cost of the support they require. Some children come into care in an emergency with a fragmented home and educational history. Consequently they have fallen behind their peers academically. Intensive support may be required to ensure accelerated progress is achieved
- some children placed out of county in other LAs may require additional support - instances where there is a significant and often delayed reaction to abuse and neglect, which manifests in hard to anticipate disruptions to learning over time
Consequently, there will be a significant difference in the amount of pupil premium plus grant allocated by the VSH dependent upon individual learning needs of the child or young person.
Non allocation of pupil premium plus grant
The pupil premium plus grant will not be provided in the following instances:
- to double fund or replace funding which will already have been allocated to the school to support the child. Where services which should be provided via an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) other statutory work for example statutory assessment should be supported through health service funding
- interventions put in place which do not require any additional funding. The allocation of the pupil premium plus grant does not alter a school’s responsibilities to the individual child. It is intended to supplement provision and provide additional support, not replace support a school is already funded to provide through its budget. Therefore the pupil premium plus grant should not be used to pay for services or support that another child would receive from the school’s general budget
- where the PEP does not meet the expected standard (see below) for costly overseas trips, family holidays or other activities that do not fulfill the principles of "best value" and cost effectiveness in the allocation of the pupil premium plus grant funding to improve academic outcomes for children in care.