Personal Education Plans (PEPs)
A Personal Education Plan (PEP) is a record of how a child is doing in their education, including their attendance. It helps everyone working with the child understand how to support the child's education.
Every child in care must have a PEP from the age of 2 (if they're in education), to the age of 18.
The PEP should complement but not duplicate any existing plans such as Education, Health and Care Plans.
All PEPs for Bristol children in care in primary, secondary and Post-16 education are completed through the Welfare Call system. On the system, as a designated teacher, you can:
- record and submit information
- attach documents to PEPs
- download PEPs
PEP meetings
The child's social worker should organise the first PEP meeting, supported by the virtual school. If the child attends an education setting, the designated teacher will gather information and chair the meetings. The education setting, social worker and virtual school are jointly responsible for making sure the PEP meets standards and is updated within a reasonable timeframe. The virtual school quality assures all completed PEPs and reviews the allocation and use of the Pupil Premium Plus funding.
The PEP meeting is usually held at your education setting or school at a time that's convenient to all key people. If you don't hear from the social worker or virtual school, you can contact them. It's always helpful if the school can help to set up and host the meeting as the education setting is central in creating the PEP and putting it into action.
Meetings are held:
- within 20 working days of a child first coming into care
- every academic term (spring, summer and autumn)
The timings of PEP meetings should be arranged so the plan can be reviewed at the next Child in Care review.
The designated teacher's role in a child's Personal Education Plan
As the designated teacher it's your responsibility to:
- enable the child to attend their PEP meeting, in person if possible
- identify who's in the best position to work with the child to record their views in the PEP form, ahead of the meeting
- collect data, reports from teachers and attendance updates and add these to the PEP form, so they can be reviewed at the meeting
- make sure all sections of the PEP form are filled in, in detail, including the sections that need input from other people, such as, the child, social worker and carer
- make sure pupil premium requests are recorded in the PEP and interventions are carried out to improve the child's educational outcomes
- complete the actions in the PEP that have been assigned to the school or designated teacher
- make sure the PEP form is complete and submitted on Welfare Call within 5 working days of a PEP meeting
PEP reviews
The designated teacher should review and update the PEP with the social worker, child and carer every academic term (spring, summer and autumn). The virtual school lead will attend all first PEP meetings, and other PEP meetings where possible, but they're not required for the PEP to be reviewed and updated.
How we monitor Personal Education Plan quality
Every PEP is monitored and feedback is given to the designated teacher along with a PEP rating of Red, Amber, Green or Gold.
For a PEP to be considered of a good standard and for pupil premium funding to be released to the school, the PEP rating must be Green or Gold.
All areas of the PEP are looked at, especially the use and impact of Pupil Premium Plus on the child's education outcomes.
If the PEP rating is Red or Amber, support will provided to the designated teacher to make the necessary improvements to bring the PEP up to the Green or Gold standard within a certain timescale.
A PEP belongs to the child involved and acts as a record of their education journey and the additional support they should be receiving as a child in care.
