What is the PEP?

The PEP is a statutory document and an integral part of the overall care plan for a young person in care. This document is updated three times during an academic year and should be completed with the young person and all other key workers around them working in collaboration. The PEP should:

• Be a celebratory record of their educational achievements.
• Track their attendance and academic attainment and progress.
• Provide an overview of SEND and or/pastoral support required and monitor its impact.
• Set SMART desirable outcomes which accelerate attainment and progress and address needs.
• The PEP documents together will provide the young person with a record of their education and achievements when they look back on them in the future.

Peterborough Virtual School staff do not ordinarily attend PEP meetings but are able to provide ongoing advice and guidance through your linked school advisor or a member of our inclusion and engagement team.

Peterborough Virtual School uses an online platform Single Sign-on (epeponline.co.uk) to support the PEP process.

This video was created by our children in care alongside The Participation Team. Please watch it to find out what they have to say about their PEPs and meeting.

The PEP meetings should be held once in the Autumn, Spring and Summer terms and form a review of the current term and set desirable outcomes for the following term. It is the responsibility of the Designated Teacher to ensure a meeting date is set and send invites. It may be necessary for the professionals around a child to hold additional meetings, for example where there is a mid-year transition, attendance concerns or where a child is new to care, but these can occur separate to the PEP meeting and minutes uploaded to the child or young person's documents on ePEP.

Ideally the PEP meeting will be held a few weeks before the submission deadline

Submission Deadlines 2024-2025

• Autumn Term: Wednesday 4th December
• Spring Term: Wednesday 19th March
• Summer Term: Wednesday 2nd July

Immediately following the submission deadline, the Virtual School will review and quality assure all of the PEPs. PEPs not completed by the submission deadline will be marked as non-compliant

This Personal Education Plans for Peterborough Children and Young People in Care. (cloud.microsoft) document explains more about the PEP process in more detail.

Additionally, our training video can be watched by following this link.

What is PP+?

Children in Care achieve significantly poorer outcomes than those who have not experienced care; in many cases the impact of pre-care and care experience can be a significant barrier to educational achievement. The Department for Education allocates the Pupil Premium Plus (PP+) grant for all children in care of statutory school age to promote educational outcomes and help close the attainment gap. It is the responsibility of the Virtual School Head to determine and be accountable for the distribution of the grant. The grant is not a personal budget for individual children and, given that children and young people in care have differing levels of need at different stages of being in care, does not have to be allocated on a per capita basis. The Virtual School Head may retain some of the grant centrally to fund services that will benefit the full cohort of children in care.

Peterborough Virtual School retains approximately 50% of the grant to benefit the full cohort of children in care. This is used to:

• Fund Virtual School staff who provide specialist support regarding inclusion and engagement.
• Provide strategic support to all settings to develop best practice in meeting the needs of our children in care and wider cohort.
• Support targeted projects for specific groups.
• Fund training opportunities for stakeholders delivered at no charge.

Designated Teachers may request the PP+ grant to support individual children’s educational needs in accordance with outcomes in their Personal Education Plans (PEPs). All requests for must be submitted on a termly basis through the online ePEP portal; this process includes the setting SMART Desirable Outcomes and a breakdown of intended spending. The impact of the grant should be reported on in the following term.