For Children We Care For and Previously Looked-After Children, we champion educational achievement, progress and wellbeing. We:

• Promote high aspirations, achievement and positive educational outcomes.
• Work with schools, settings, carers and social workers to identify and overcome barriers to education.
• Provide advice, guidance, support and training to education professionals.
• Support access to appropriate education, specialist services and professional advice.
• Promote access to wider learning, enrichment and opportunities beyond the classroom.
• Support effective planning for education, training and future pathways.
• Champion the importance of high-quality early education and childcare.

Our extended role broadens the reach of the Virtual School. We provide strategic leadership for children with a social worker and children in kinship care, working across education and social care to improve educational outcomes.

We:

• Influence policy, practice and service development to ensure education remains a priority for vulnerable children.
• Identify common barriers to attendance, engagement, attainment and progress.
• Strengthen partnerships between schools, education settings, social care and the local authority.
• Provide advice, support and training to professionals working with these cohorts.
• Promote high aspirations and evidence-informed practice across the partnership.
• Use our varied expertise to help services respond effectively to the educational needs of vulnerable children.

Importantly, the extended duty is a strategic responsibility for the cohort, rather than the individual case-management or intervention role associated with children in care.