The Looked After Children Education Support
Service is responsible for ensuring that Suffolk County Council
promotes the educational achievement of the children and young
people in its care.
In each of the three Northern, Western and Southern areas, the
service has a small team of education project workers. These staff
will work with all relevant professionals to improve educational
outcomes for young people and may provide direct, interim support
for looked after children.
- awaiting an
appropriate education placement
- at risk of
exclusion or failure to meet education targets
- where the care
placement stability is threatened by the lack of an appropriate
education placement.
This support is additional to that
available for all young people from local authority services and
does not alter responsibilities held by those services.
The service operates a virtual school to monitor the attendance and
performance of looked after children and ensure appropriate
intervention. All service staff work with colleagues from schools,
other agencies, carers and families to promote rapid response to
the needs of looked after children. This includes targeting cohorts
of young people as well as individual
cases.