Fay Blyth, Virtual School Headteacher for Waltham Forest

How fantastic! This is really excellent stuff.

Helen Bushell, (Previous) Head of Virtual School for Rutland

Senior managers feel that the analytics is impressive and are keen to have as many dashboards as possible to show Ofsted for our annual conversation.

Michaela Blair, PEP Co-ordinator for Oldham

I’m a bit giddy, I love the ePEP dashboards – How clever are you lot! Gosh I love this system.

Calvin Kipling, Virtual School Headteacher for Darlington

I like the dashboards. They are very clear. I also like the jump-to’s and the ability to drill down to individual young people. On the whole really happy. I am looking forward to other attainment-based dashboards – especially one that can capture the children making less than expected progress.

Nickie West-Jarrett, Attendance and Inclusion Officer for Lewisham Virtual School

I’m absolutely loving Analytics and the updates coming through are very helpful.

Graeme Ferguson, Virtual School Head, Derby City Council

We have worked with Welfare Call for over 3 years, it has transformed the way we work in terms of the way we have been able to utilise our resources and deploying staff differently as they are able to proactively use the data rather than chasing it. The data we get from Welfare Call is excellent, its timely, its accurate and it has enabled us to work much more efficiently as a Virtual School team.

London Borough of Merton – Children’s Services Inspection

Children in care have positive education experiences. In school, children in care have good attendance and behaviour. Permanent and fixed exclusions for pupils who are in care are low. The virtual school provides good support for schools to produce increasingly effective personal education plans, which include clear targets and the voice of the pupil. The engagement of children in care and care leavers in their education and pathway plans is improving.

Rutland County Council – Children’s Services Inspection

Electronic personal education plans are detailed, focus on the key areas, and include pupil targets and the pupils’ perspectives. A range of extra-curricular activities are available to support and enrich the lives of children in care. The virtual school carefully tracks the progress of all pupils and is quick to intercede should a child’s attendance start to reduce.

London Borough of Harrow – Children’s Services Inspection

The virtual school has a clear sense of purpose and direction and makes good use of performance data to target its activity to best effect. As a result, its influence and impact continue to grow. Ninety-six per cent of children in care have an up-to-date personal education plan (PEP). Better use is being made of the pupil premium grant.

Bedford Borough Council – Children’s Services Focused Visit

The rate of children’s attendance at school is rising. Relationships between the virtual school and designated teachers are strong. The personal education plan (PEP) process is well established and comprehensive. Children are making good educational progress.

Cornwall Council – Children’s Services Inspection

The virtual school systematically monitors and evaluates the quality of personal education plans (PEPs), and, as a result, the quality of plans is improving. All PEPs have a clear focus on academic progress.

Swindon Borough Council – Children’s Services Inspection

Personal education plans (PEPs) provide a sound basis to plan and review the progress children make. Children in care receive effective support from the virtual school staff, who understand their individual needs and act as effective advocates for them. This helps children stay on track to achieve their goals, and, consequently, many make good progress from their starting points.

Worcestershire County Council – Children’s Services Inspection

The virtual school provides effective support for the progress and attainment of children in care. The virtual school team has a sound understanding of the progress that children are making. As a result of effective support, many make good progress from their starting points. Personal education plans are mostly of good quality; they are reviewed termly and clearly identify the support that children need. Interventions are tailored to children’s needs and support their progress well.

London Borough of Tower Hamlets – Children’s Services Inspection

Children and young people make good educational progress in care. Those who do not attend school have prompt access to suitable, good-quality registered alternative provision. Children’s progress is closely reviewed through personal education plans which have well-written targets, and this is an improvement since the last inspection. Urgent action is taken if children are missing from education or if their attendance reduces.

Mobin Chothia, Service Development Officer, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council

Welfare Call provides a highly professional and cost competitive service that has enhanced our ability to collect progression and impact information for the majority of learners attending our courses. Welfare Call has made this mammoth task into a much easier process enabling us to effortlessly compile mandatory progression returns and demonstrate the value and effectiveness of our service in our community.

Kashif Nawaz, Virtual School Head, Bracknell Forest

The role of the Virtual School Head continues to remain a challenging one where the dynamics are as varied as each individual that we work with. Given increasingly limited resources of Local Authorities, it’s also vital that investments are made in services that achieve the highest impact. Having worked with Welfare Call now for 4 years, I consider them more of a strategic partner than a service provider. Not only have they consistently demonstrated the highest degree of professionalism throughout this period reflected in the quality of their work but their proactive approach has meant that we continue to look at ways of further expanding and enhancing our partnership with them. I have no hesitation in recommending Welfare Call as a leader in their field.

London Borough of Barnet – Children’s Services Inspection

The strong emphasis on ensuring that PEPs are of good quality and completed in a timely way is contributing well to children’s progress.

London Borough of Enfield – Children’s Services Inspection

Education is actively promoted for children in care and the virtual school is increasingly effective in ensuring that children make good progress and reach their potential. The quality and timeliness of personal education plans have improved significantly. Children benefit from regular reviews of their progress.

Kate Harm, Specialist Education Officer for Children in Care, Derby Virtual School

Our PEPs are much better quality and are completed on time. Welfare Calls ePEP system has been a massive help towards this.

There are a number of Ofsted quotes which are looking slightly dated (given they are from 2017) therefore I would propose using the ones outlined below:

All children in care, including those placed out of area, had an online personal education plan (PEP) meeting during the national lockdown, and this provided a good line of sight into the experiences of these children.

Graeme Ferguson, Virtual School Head, Derby City Council

We have been using the Welfare Call ePEP for a number of years having previously had a paper based PEP.
Over this period we have seen:

• our timely completion rates for the ePEP improve from 85% to 95%
• an improved quality of what has been written within the ePEP
• greater consistency
• improved communication with DT’s and SW’s
• better accountability for responsibilities”