Further £16.6m Funding Confirmed for Virtual Schools by Will Quince MP
Last month saw the return of the National Association of Virtual School Heads Conference as an in-person event at London’s Earls Court. It was great to catch up with virtual heads in person after working alongside them remotely for so long. There were plenty of interesting sessions over the two days but by far the most […]
Where are England’s Children? Safeguarding the most vulnerable children through Attendance monitoring
This week saw the publication of Where are England’s Children? Interim findings from the Children’s Commissioner’s Attendance Audit. In order to investigate how much Local Authorities (LAs) know about children that are missing education, the Children’s Commissioner’s office surveyed 145 LAs, which makes up 96 per cent of the total. The report said that figures from […]
Lisa Linscott & Dorset Virtual School: Our Journey with Welfare Call
Lisa Linscott is Virtual School Head and Principal Teacher at Dorset Council. The Virtual School provides education for children in care (CiC), and also for previously looked after children (PLAC). Its mission is to improve the education and life chances of these children. Lisa recently engaged Welfare Call to support Dorset Council with: Daily […]
The use of Pupil Premium Plus to Improve Educational Outcomes for Looked After Children
A recent paper written by Bath Spa University highlighted the variations in how different virtual schools allocate and manage Pupil Premium allocations, and the need to be able to measure and isolate the impact of PP+. As identified in this paper, prior to the 2019-20 Academic year, each Local Authority had its own bespoke method […]
NAVSH Conference 2022: How to widen the brief without losing the plot
We are really looking forward to seeing you all in person at the NAVSH conference on 16th – 17th March 2022 at Earl’s Court, London. This year’s theme is “How to widen the brief without losing the plot” so we’ll be showcasing how our services support this, including: Attendance collection for both live calling […]
Does your Authority issue fines to parents of absent children? New consultation launched by DfE to end postcode lottery in how schools manage avoidable absence.
Does your Authority issue fines to parents of absent children? The issue of pupil attendance data has been talked about a lot over the past couple of weeks as the government has proposed that they are looking to set a standard around how legal intervention – including penalty notices – should be used in promoting good attendance […]
New Government Initiative: Support for vulnerable young people in serious violence hotspots
We’re interested to learn of a new government initiative to support young people across England who are most at risk of serious violence or gang exploitation Support for vulnerable young people in serious violence hotspots – GOV.UK The targeted support, backed by £30 million, is part of a rollout of 10 ‘SAFE’ (Support, Attend, Fulfil, […]
New funding stream available from the DfE
We’re pleased to hear there that there is a new funding stream/grant available for schools and Virtual Schools which people may not be aware of. As part of the Department for Education’s (DfE) education recovery plan, the Secretary of State for Education is providing financial assistance to eligible local authorities, for their maintained schools, and […]
How can we help Virtual School heads get children in care the education they need?
An article caught my eye earlier this month on the challenges of getting children in care the education they need. It goes on to say that Virtual School heads lack the powers they need in the face of “pushback” from schools, and that Councils are ‘failing as a corporate parent’. a difficult subject and I wanted to look in more detail at the cause of the issue, and what we as a supplier can do to help solve the problem.
Welfare Call accredited for the government G-Cloud 12 framework
We’re happy to announce that we’ve once again been accepted on the latest iteration of the Government certified Digital Marketplace framework, G-Cloud 12. The G-Cloud framework is an initiative that the Government began in 2012 to provide UK public sector organisations with a centralised procurement framework for the provision of cloud-based products and services. […]