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Contents

1. What are Personal Education Allowances?
2. Eligibility for Support
3. Use of PEAs and their Link to PEPs
4. Application for PEAs and Approval
5. Educational Support for Care Leavers
6. Personal Education Allowance Application Form

1. What are Personal Education Allowances?

PEAs are provided to pay for additional support for CLA who are identified as being at risk of not meeting the national expected standards of attainment.

2. Eligibility for Support

All CLA, regardless of how long they have been looked after, are entitled to apply for support: if they are not making sufficient progress or are at risk of not meeting national standards,

• Level 2 in reading, writing and maths at KS1
• Level 4 in English, maths and science at KS2
• Level 5 in English, maths and science at KS3
• 5 A* - C GCSE passes, including English and maths

PEAs are not intended as a one-off payment.  Any child looked after should receive an annual allowance for each year they are at risk of not making sufficient progress.

3. Use of PEAs and their Link to PEPs

PEAs are intended to pay for activities or resources that a parent would normally fund for their own school child. The choice of activity must be clearly linked to the objectives set out in the PEP, which should identify the child's educational and developmental needs with associated short and long term targets. We need to actively seek the input of CLA and their carers on the use of PEAs  and the development and review of the PEP presents a good opportunity to engage with and ensure that the child's and carer's views are taken into full consideration.

Some examples of activities could include:

• 1 - 1 tuition
• Out of school learning and development
• Educational trips and visits
• Additional support for vocational training, e.g. equipment

Councils can pool the budget to achieve greater efficiency through joint commissioning where a number of CLA have similar learning or developmental needs.

PEAs are not intended to replace, duplicate or substitute services already provided. In particular they should not be used to replace:

• the support identified through the SEN Code of Practice, i.e. School Action, School Action Plus or through a Statement of SEN
• resources provided through foster care allowances or residential home fees
• the funding for trips and visits organised as part of the school curriculum
• funding for school uniforms or PE equipment
• alternative provision for those excluded

4. Application for PEAs and Approval

The need for support is identified in the child/young person's PEP at the six monthly review of the plan or at an interim review. The PEP should be updated whenever a 'need' is identified and applications will not be considered without an accompanying up to date PEP. As always the PEP should be updated with contributions from all parties, ideally at a meeting. 

An application should be completed by the Designated Teacher, in consultation with the child/young person's social worker, and e-mailed to the Educational Support Team. There must be a direct link between the need for the application and need recorded in section 15, 16, 17 or 21 of the PEP.  There should also be an explanation of how the intervention is going to meet the identified need. 

Examples:  

1. A young person may have difficulty with fine and gross-motor skills, after identifying this in the PEP, an application could be made for Art Therapy as an out of school activity as this would support their fine motor skills.  
2. A young person may have difficulty with writing levels and attainment.  Attendance at a Judo club could be used as a basis for writing homework (e.g. writing a diary, narrative, competition poster etc.) which would be monitored via the designated teacher and class teacher.

A copy of the up to date PEP will be attached to the completed form by the Educational Support Team so please ensure that all updated PEPs are forwarded to the team. It will then be considered by a panel drawn from Children's Services (school and social care expertise), who will assess whether the application meets the criteria. It will then be put forward to the service manager for a final decision to be made. When an application is granted details of the outcome of the intervention must be recorded on the application form and returned to the Educational Support Team.

5. Educational Support for Care Leavers

Support can also be accessed for care leavers who are in further or higher education. Again this support should be in response to an identified need e.g. text books and tuition and should be in addition to what the young person would receive anyway. For care leavers the need should be identified in the Pathway Plan and the relevant form completed by the social worker or employability officer and forwarded to the Educational Support Team.

6. Personal Education Allowance Application Form 

Click here to view PEA application form.

End