Shropshire Virtual School Personal education plan (PEP)

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Our Shropshire PEP

We know that a good quality personal education plan for our looked-after children is one of the key drivers for improving their life chances.

In Shropshire, as corporate parents, we're aspirational for our children and young people, and are committed to doing our very best to make this happen for every one of them.

Our young person's PEP should have their participation at the heart of it - and their views are the first thing to consider when preparing for and holding a PEP.

We hope the information and guidance on our website helps every supporting person to achieve a good quality PEP for our young people. Here is the suite of documents that have been co-produced with our social care managers, our schools and our parent representative – thank you to everyone who took part and supported in the development of Our Shropshire PEP.

Please see also:

What is a PEP?

Every Looked-After Child must have a care plan, of which the PEP is an integral part. The PEP must be initiated as part of the care plan - and it is statutory.

A PEP is an evolving record of what needs to happen for our Looked-After Children to enable them to make at least expected progress and fulfil their potential. Our young person's PEP should also be an opportunity to celebrate and share successes in relation to their achievements.

The PEP should reflect a personalised approach to learning that meets our young person's identified needs, raises aspirations and builds life chances. Key to this is an integrated approach where schools, parents/carers, social workers, the virtual school (and any other practitioners supporting our child) use the PEP to support achieving these things. Each term, aspirational targets are set at the meeting so that all the supporting adults are encouraging the young person's progress.

Our Shropshire PEPs for children in the early years phase and statutory school years are completed on the e-PEP online platform.

Statutory guidance

Every one of our Looked-After Children must have a PEP from early years up to the age of 18. In Shropshire, PEP meetings should start when a child in care begins to receive their 15 hours of free childcare - which is the term after their second birthday - and PEP meetings are held up to the end of 'year 13' (the academic year in which the young person turns 18).

Each looked-After Child must have their PEP reviewed at least three times every academic year, which is once a term (but more frequently in certain situations).

When a young person enters care, their first PEP must be within 20 working days - and if they are placed into care in an emergency, then the first PEP must be held within 10 working days.

If our young person starts at a new education setting, then their PEP must be held within 20 working days. 

Even if our young person is without a school place, a PEP meeting must still be initiated and held in timescales.

These statutory timescales enable the PEP to be effective and available in time for the first statutory review of our young person's care plan.

See the statutory guidance for more information:

PEPs for children in the early years

Shropshire PEP meetings should start when a child in care begins to receive their 15 hours of free childcare, ie the term after their second birthday. These PEP reviews should then be held termly.

The child will be set up on ePEP when they enter care or once the Virtual School has been notified of their confirmed educational setting. Both the child's social worker and designated teacher will be added; it's their joint responsibility to complete the PEPs.

Early years PEPs should focus on identifying learning and development gaps and setting smart targets, with the aim of ‘plugging’ those gaps to support the child to reach age-related or above-age expectations and development goals, when eligible early years pupil premium plus should be used to support with this process. We ask that the Shropshire speech and language checklist is also completed at least once a year for all of our early years children. If this highlights any areas of concern we would accept further support and specific targets to be noted in the PEP.

On the child’s e-PEP account there will be three sections which require completion:

  • Section A (social worker) and B (designated teacher) should ideally be filled out prior to the meeting. These sections should include basic care information, important contact details, the child’s attendance, attainment data, and any special educational or support needs. The social worker also has to complete the summary of discussion section, which notes the multi-agency discussion that has taken place
  • The child’s views – it's the responsibility of the early years setting to gain the child’s views. There are a number of options available via ePEP to facilitate this

PEPs for young people in the post-16 phase

Every one of our young people must have a PEP, including those in the post-16 phase. This ensures they have support through the post-16 phase towards successful engagement with education, employment or training - and also supports their onwards progression as they leave care. Our current PEP document is available by contacting Lorraine Griffiths, our post-16 personal advisor.

Roles:

  • The 'designated member of staff' at the young person’s provider chairs the meeting and completes the PEP record. They then return it to our post-16 practitioner within two working weeks of the meeting date
  • The young person’s social worker attends the PEP to support the young person’s progress, and it's their responsibility to share a copy with parent/carers
  • Shropshire Virtual School leads the PEP meeting and completes the PEP record for those young people who are currently not in education, employment or training

We aim for each one of our young people to have a 'good quality' PEP and the social worker, carer, provider and Shropshire Virtual School will work together to achieve this. Post-16 PEP records are attached to LCS as a document by Shropshire Virtual School once they're deemed to be 'good quality'.

Our post-16 PEP is currently under development and more information will follow once the electronic PEP for post-16 young people becomes available.

PEP Deadlines 2024-2025

Shropshire Virtual School asks all people supporting PEPs to ensure that the meeting is held and the PEP signed off as completed at least two weeks before the end of each term. For the academic year 2023-24 these dates are:

  • Autumn term - Friday 6 December 2024
  • Spring term - Friday 28 March 2025
  • Summer term - Friday 4 July 2025

Training

Shropshire Virtual School delivers regular training on PEPs to schools, new social workers and carers.

Here's a recording of one of the training sessions we've delivered to schools to give you the core information. 

Training for new Shropshire social workers is delivered routinely and includes key information around PEPs. For a place please contact Debbie Watson. Training for new designated teachers is delivered routinely each term and includes key information about PEPs. For a place, please see the University of Chester (Shrewsbury) brochure.

For social workers who have been unable to attend the training or need a refresher, you can view one of the training sessions delivered to social care colleagues.

Our Shropshire Virtual School team is here to help and advise around any questions you have about the PEP so please get in touch.

Email: virtualschool@shropshire.gov.uk
Tel: 01743 250124
Twitter: @ShropVirtualSch

Top tips

Remember to ‘prep the PEP’ – complete information where you can before the meeting so that a good quality discussion can be held. This includes the young person’s views, the social worker single page and some of the education information in My PEP.

Remember to sign-off your section within ten school days of the meeting taking place. This enables the virtual school team to swiftly ensure that it's a good quality PEP.

Remember the PEP is a snapshot in time – so ensure that attainment data is complete and uses the most up to date information you have at the time of the meeting (even if it's from the previous term).

It's good practice to ensure that targets are set with teachers and young people at the beginning of each term so that PP+ can be allocated to those targets/interventions, ie there's no delay. 

Our young person’s section on the website is being developed and will include information for them on PEPs.

Here are some tips and tools to help you...

Guide to writing SMART targets

The termly PEP targets need to be the stepping stones to support the young person to achieve their bigger, longer-term targets, and where appropriate move towards education, employment or training. 

Start by writing down your initial goal for the young person. Work your way through the questions below, adding more information to your initial target as you go. 

  1. Specific - is this specific to the young person and to the curriculum/targeted area? Which specific skills or knowledge need to be acquired? Who needs to be included? When do you want to do this? Why is this a goal?
  2. Measurable - how can you measure progress? How are you going to demonstrate success?
  3. Achievable - does the young person have the skills required to achieve the goal? If not, how can you support them? What's the motivation for this goal? Is the amount of effort required on a par with what the goal will achieve?
  4. Realistic - will the child/young person be able to achieve this goal? Will they be able to celebrate a success by their next PEP meeting?
  5. Time-bound - what’s the deadline and is it realistic? Will this target be achieved in time for the next PEP meeting?

Review what you've written and craft a new SMART target based on what the answers to the questions above have revealed.

Round robin PEP template

The round robin PEP template will help in preparing for PEP meetings.

Examples of SMART PEP targets - taken from your PEPs
  • O will read independently three times a week and increase his standardised score to above 80
  • J will allow the teacher to manage classroom behaviour on 90% of occasions, ie he will not intervene
  • P will be able to construct an accurate PEZEL paragraph on 4/5 occasions
  • S will attend weekly guitar lessons and perform a short piece of music at his next PEP
  • A will improve her attendance from 72% to over 90% by the end of this term
  • B will be able to have successful playtimes with no incidents on 60% of occasions
  • J will increase the amount of time learning in the classroom from five minutes on task and three minute reset to ten minutes on task and three minute reset

Aiming for 90% or higher good quality PEPs for Shropshire looked-after children and young people.

Creating SMART targets

KS3 and KS4 SMART targets

Here are some examples of targets and how they can become SMART...

Target: to pass functional skills maths

SMART target: to prepare for functional skills maths assessment on 25 May, by revising fractions and percentages - in particular I need to be able to calculate a percentage discount using monetary values. I can use BBC Skillswise tasks at home to support what I'm learning in class.

Target: to complete unit 102

SMART target: to complete unit 102 - understand the principles and values in health and social care. You need to be able to describe what is meant by person-centred or child-centred practice. You'll write up your observations from your work placement at nursery, which will give you some concrete examples. This must be submitted by 11 April.

Target: to get better in maths, English and science

SMART target: I'll be working at grade 3 in maths by the summer term by focusing on algebra. This will involve me being able to expand a single bracket and draw the graph of an equation by completing a table of values. My 1-1 support will focus on this and I'll know that I've been successful if I achieve 55% in my assessment 3 on 18 May. 

Target: to improve confidence in maths

SMART target: I'll develop my skill set in geometry and measures and be able to apply the formula for finding the area of a triangle when I'm given the perpendicular height and base. I'll score 40% on my shape homework in November. 

Target: not be excluded again

SMART target: to access the sensory room during first break and be able to identify three successes per week with your key adult during your Friday mentor session. 

Target: to engage in English

SMART target: I'll improve my ability to discuss Shakespeare's plays by revising the key theme of love in Twelfth Night. To do this I'll use BBC Bitesize and my English learning mentor. I'll be able to write about why Viola keeps her love for Orsino secret and memorise two quotes to show this. I'll demonstrate success by achieving grade 5 in my English mini-assessment on Twelfth Night on 12 June.