Pupil premium policy for children and young people in care

Introduction

This policy is informed by three key Departments for Education (DfE) documents:

Pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to:

  • raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities 
  • close the gaps between them and their peers

Pupil premium funding is available to:

  • schools maintained by the local authority, including:
    • special schools, for children with special educational needs or disabilities 
    • pupil referral units (PRUs), for children who can’t go to a mainstream school
  • academies and free schools, including:
    • special academies, for children with special educational needs or disabilities 
    • alternative provision (AP) academies, for children who cannot go to a mainstream school
  • voluntary-sector AP, with local authority agreement
  • non-maintained special schools (NMSS), for children with special educational needs as approved by the Secretary of State for Education under section 342 of the Education Act 1992

Throughout this policy, the pupil premium for children in care will be referred to as the pupil premium plus grant to distinguish it from other forms of pupil premium allocations.

The funding rates for pupil premium plus for the financial year (April 2024 to March 2025) are:

  • 1 April 2024 pupil premium plus grant £2,570 per statutory school aged pupil
  • 1 April 2024 early years pupil premium grant amount £388 per child

Children and young people are eligible as soon as they enter care.

Local authorities continue to be responsible for distributing the pupil premium plus grant payments for children in care to education settings.The virtual school head teacher (VSH) is also responsible for ensuring effective arrangements are in place for allocating pupil premium plus grant funding to benefit children looked after by their home authority.

The overall grant allocated to each LA will be calculated on a per capita basis. However, it does not have to be distributed on a per capita basis, given that children and young people in care have differing levels of need at different stages of their journey through life in the care of the local authority.

The grant must be managed by the virtual school head. It must be used to improve academic outcomes as identified in the Personal Education Plan [PEP] in consultation with the designated teacher. As a result, the quality of PEPs must be monitored closely by:

  • designated teachers
  • the virtual school team
  • social care team leaders
  • independent reviewing officers 

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.

Accountability of the virtual school head

The Lincolnshire virtual school head is responsible for managing the pupil premium plus grant. They are directly accountable to both the Lincolnshire Children's Services Directorate  Leadership Team, and the Lincolnshire Corporate Parenting Panel. This ensures that a transparent and rigorous allocation process is in place and the impact of the grant is optimised in improving educational outcomes.

High quality Personal Education Plans (PEPs)

Quality of electronic Personal Education Plans [ePEPs] - funding to schools, academies and early years settings 2024 to 2025

The pupil premium plus grant (above the  initial allocations – see below) will only be provided to meet the needs of children in care as identified in a high quality ePEP.  The ePEP must have clear quantitative (and exceptionally qualitative) targets for academic improvement, underpinned by well-targeted support. The virtual school regularly quality assures plans.  We provide challenge and support to  education settings, social workers and IROs as required.

Interventions must be time limited and scrutinised for effectiveness at each review. Interventions must support the principle of "best value" and cost effectiveness.

The pupil premium plus grant must be used by  education settings to improve academic outcomes for children in the key areas outlined in the Lincolnshire ePEP to:

  • commission, develop, target effective interventions to accelerate progress and meet the individual academic needs of children in care particularly in reading, writing and mathematics
  • extend wider opportunities for achievement for example in an area in which the child is gifted and talented
  • improve engagement and attendance
  • encourage greater participation and inclusion (by reducing internal , external and social exclusion)
  • support the development of key social skills, resilience, self- reliance, and independence
  • better support transitions into the next key stage and, or a new learning provider to ensure stability of placements

The ePEP will show the baseline data, target for improvement, expected outcomes and cost of support. For example: Sam is below national age-related expectations in reading. To enable Sam to accelerate progress in reading, he will have:

  • 12 hours of one-to-one support at £50 per hour
  • membership of Letterbox Club (organised via virtual school) 
  • 15 minutes a night of reading with foster carers recorded in his reading log

Time period for achievement of this target: April 2024 to July 2024 to make at least "above expected progress" as measured against national measures of expected progress.

National and international studies have shown that one to one tuition can have a disproportionately positive impact for children in care. The pupil premium plus grant will fund one to one tuition at a maximum rate of £50 per hour up to a maximum of 12 hours per term (autumn, spring and summer). The use of pupil premium plus grant for additional school commissioned support utilising therapeutic programmes for example should be agreed in advance with the allocated virtual school  co-ordinator. This ensures the consistent application of "best value" principles in relation to the use of grant.

Pupil premium plus grant and early years pupil premium (EYPP) 2024 to 2025

For the financial year 2024 to 2025 the Lincolnshire VSH will provide children in care in years reception to year 5 and year 7 to year 10 an initial allocation of £750 per child followed by a further payment of £750 at the start of the following term. Pupils in years 6 and 11 will receive a proportionate amount of the initial grant to effectively support the young person's transition into the next phase of their education. This will be allocated to the current school. Schools can also apply for funding up to an additional £1030 for all students through the completion of a quality ePEP unless there is evidence that the needs of the child or young person are such that an enhanced package of intervention is required. Early years  pupil premium for children in care  resident to Lincolnshire will be allocated as per conditions of grant 2024 to 2025 on completion of a quality ePEP. ePEPs must take place termly (three times per year).

EYPP for looked after children resident to Lincolnshire will be allocated as per conditions of grant in liaison between the virtual school and the Lincolnshire Early Years and Childcare Support Team (see Appendix 2).

Proposals to pool  pupil premium plus funding to enhance services (for example where a school or group of schools has, and is likely to have, consistently high numbers of children in care on roll over a period of years) will be considered by the VSH. This must be agreed between the child's school head or principal and the virtual school head in advance. It must be based upon a cohesive support package captured within the ePEP for all Lincolnshire children in care attending the school. These will also have clearly outlined costings and success criteria relating to the individual educational outcomes of each  child in care within the context of the 'pooled funding'. The allocations of £1080 per child will be sent to the school in one tranche and be regularly reviewed through the ePEP process.

Allocation and recoupment of funding to schools in and out of county

Allocation of funding to Lincolnshire schools and recoupment policy

The initial payments of  pupil premium plus grant will be allocated to schools by 31 May 2024 or within one month of a young person coming into care after 30 April 2024.

Where there is a need to clarify what funding a school is providing from its own resources, the school may need to provide evidence before pupil premium plus grant can be allocated. Pupil premium plus will not be recouped where a child moves during the term.

The virtual school reserves the right to recoup pupil premium plus funding if there is evidence that it is not being used to address the child in care’s needs.

Allocation of funding to out of county (non-residential) schools and recoupment policy

An out of county school will need to be set up on Lincolnshire finance system and a delay in providing the necessary details may result in a delay in funding being allocated. Once the setting has been set up, additional requests can be submitted for further funding based on the child’s specific needs as above.

The grant will be transferred directly to the schools via Lincolnshire Schools Finance Team (see Appendix 1). Where there is a need to clarify what funding a school is providing from its own resources, the school may need to provide evidence before the  pupil premium plus grant can be allocated. The virtual school reserves the right to recoup  pupil premium plus funding if there is evidence that it is not being used to address the child’s needs or if the child moves to a different setting. The virtual school will have a discussion with a setting before making a decision to recoup funds.

Allocation of grant to out of county residential providers and recoupment policy

We will provide pupil premium plus funding to independent providers only in exceptional circumstances, because these are already funded at a high level by central budgets.

Any  pupil premium plus grant allocation will have to be approved by the virtual school headteacher, on receipt of a high quality ePEP.

We reserve the right to recoup the funding if there is evidence that it is not being used to address the individual needs of the child in care.

Other local authority children in care living in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire schools should contact the home authority of the child in care to ensure receipt of the pupil premium plus grant.

Pupil premium plus grant for children and young people attending Lincolnshire schools placed by other local authorities

Different approaches will be adopted by different LAs, as the contexts vary so much, in terms of:

  • number of school-aged children in care
  • the size of virtual school team
  • the existing operational budget for the virtual school team

Lincolnshire schools where children and young people in care from other local authorities are on roll must contact the head teacher of the relevant virtual school to request their  pupil premium plus grant policy. This is because nationally, all head teachers of virtual schools are responsible for the allocation of pupil premium plus grant for all school aged children and young people in care within their authorities, even though the child or young person is educated in a Lincolnshire school. The name and contact details of other virtual school head teachers can be requested from the Lincolnshire virtual school team.

Appendix 1: Timescales for payment from Finance once approved

Lincolnshire County Council schools

On receipt of approved requests from the virtual school, LCC Schools Finance will notify schools via the monthly bulletin the confirmed allocation for their school. Schools will be notified when allocations can be viewed on Perspective Lite.

Prime account schools and academies

On receipt of approved requests from the virtual school, Finance will organise payment by BACS via Accounts Payable. Payment will be in the bank account on a monthly basis. In cases where the allocation is a first allocation, there is a potential in delay for payment, as the process for setting the school up as a new supplier will need to be followed.

Early years and other vendors

On receipt of approved requests from the virtual school, Finance will organise payment by BACS via Accounts Payable. Payment will be in the bank account on a monthly basis.

Appendix 2: Early years pupil premium for children in care

Overview of funding

Early years pupil premium funding was introduced in April 2015, to build on the successful model of the school age pupil premium. It will ensure more money is spent on those three and four-year-olds that will benefit most from additional investment. Two-year-olds will not be eligible to receive this funding.

The aim of the early years pupil premium is to close the gap between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers by providing funding to early years providers to help them raise the quality of their provision. It will complement the Government-funded early education entitlement by providing nurseries, schools, and other providers with up to an additional £388 a year for each eligible child. This equates to an hourly rate of 68p per child per hour, based on 15 hours free entitlement. As the early years pupil premium is calculated for an hourly rate, funding will only be allocated based on the number of hours a child attends (up to a maximum of 15 hours).

Eligibility

A child will be eligible for the EYPP if they are:

Or

  • Have been:
    • looked after by the local authority for at least one day
    • have been adopted from care
    • have left care through special guardianship
    • children subject to a child arrangement order

The early years entitlement team check eligibility on a termly basis based on information supplied on the parent declaration forms. Funding will be allocated to providers but will follow the child. Where a child attends more than one setting for their 15 hours, the funding will be split according to the hours attended at each provider.

Early years and childcare support works collaboratively with the virtual school to identify and fund all looked after children through the early years pupil premium.

Impact and outcomes

Restrictions will not be imposed on how providers spend the early years pupil premium. Instead, Ofsted will hold providers to account for how they have used the EYPP to support their disadvantaged children through the regular inspection process. Evidence must be demonstrated to ensure the additional funding is making a difference and ‘narrowing the gap’.

Ofsted will monitor impact under two sections of the framework:

  • how well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend
  • the effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision

Early years pupil premium funding for children in care will be linked to the e-PEP (Electronic Personal Education Plan). Providers will be required to complete this document in conjunction with the virtual school to show impact of this additional funding. Providers will receive EYPP funding for children in care from the virtual school. This process is separate to all other EYPP funding. The EYPP funding for  children in care must be spent to help meet the needs identified in the children’s Personal Education Plans (PEPs).

If you require further clarification about the e-PEP please email VirtualSchool@lincolnshire.gov.uk