The Personal Education Plan (PEP)

Personal Education Plan

The Personal Education Plan (PEP) is a statutory requirement which should set out what needs to happen to support the personalised learning of the child. The PEP should be initiated by the social worker as part of the Care Plan before the child becomes Looked After (or within 10 working days in the case of an emergency placement), and be available for the first Children Looked After Review meeting. Subsequently, the PEP should be reviewed termly see Reviewing and Updating the Personal Education Plan (PEP).

All Children Looked After age three to eighteen must have a PEP, whether or not currently attending an education setting. It is good practice to complete a PEP for children under the age of three who are attending nursery provision or where there has been an identified learning/educational need. The PEP provides essential information to ensure that appropriate support is in place to enable the child to achieve and aspire, and is also a record of the child's leisure interests and educational achievement.

The key people who should attend a PEP meeting include:

• The child;
• The Social Worker;
• The carer and parent (if appropriate);
• The Designated Teacher.

All those contributing to the PEP process should involve the child, however if it is deemed that it is not suitable for the child to attend their meeting e.g. due to their age or them not wanting to engage in the process, this should be recorded in the PEP. Every effort should be made to encourage the child to contribute to their PEP.

The PEP should:

• Clearly outline what needs to happen and any interventions in place to meet the child's educational needs;
• Provide information on any social and emotional needs that may prevent or distract from learning and educational progress;
• Record current attainment and progress data;
• Include a minimum of three short term SMART targets which will ensure progress from this term to the next and one longer term target;
• Capture any special educational needs, summarise support in place and any action needed;
• Set out how the child's aspirations will be supported and encouraged from the earliest stage Set out and work to support the chid's aspirations;
• Provide information which helps all who are supporting the child to understand, support and plan for their specific individual needs;
• Have a strong link from information recorded to requests made within the Pupil Premium application.

The Designated Teacher should lead on how the PEP is developed and used in school to make sure the child's progress towards education targets is monitored. They have a key role in ensuring that the PEP accurately records all relevant information and is a high quality document which effectively meets and plans for the child needs.

Once the PEP is signed off as completed by the Social Worker and Designated Teacher the Virtual School will quality assure the document and provide feedback. Where actions have been set to improve the quality they must be actioned within 5 working days.

The completed PEP should be accessible to the child, school, carers and all others invited to the meeting. Where arrangements for the distribution of the PEP need to be made, this should be agreed at the meeting. A copy of the finalised PEP must be saved on the child's file (ICS).

The Virtual School assess the quality of PEPs and provide feedback to schools and social workers. The education section of the PEP is also scrutinised during Virtual School monitoring visits.