The Designated Teacher

The role of the Designated Teacher (DT) in promoting the education of Looked After Children in their school is key to successful educational outcomes for them. The role is statutory and every governing body has a duty to ensure they have a DT who is a qualified teacher and has 'appropriate seniority, professional experience and status' to lead in this vital task. If this person is not a member of the Senior Leadership Team, a member of the SLT is expected to champion Looked After Children at senior leadership level and work closely with the DT.

Where schools have many LAC, the DT may delegate some of their responsibilities whilst remaining in overall control. The DT is expected to work with the governor for Looked After Children; reporting to them on a regular basis on the progress in all areas of school life for their LAC and support them in undertaking an annual review of policy and practice in this respect.

Training and Resources

As well as ensuring there is a DT in place, the governing body must also ensure that the DT has sufficient support, training and resources to be able to carry out their role.

Designated Teachers will need to be given time to attend training provided by the Virtual School, professional organisations and private enterprises to learn about possible solutions to some of the barriers to learning that LAC are subject to. They will need to attend local authority designated teacher forums and training to keep themselves informed.

In turn, DTs will need to train others in the school so they are enabled to respond to the specific teaching and learning needs of their LAC. They have lead responsibility for ensuring staff dealing with LAC are aware of the emotional, psychological and social effects of loss and broken attachment and how that is likely to impact on the child. They should be allocated INSET time and resources for this purpose.

School Policies

The DT will also have a role in promoting a whole school policy for LAC. Such a policy would:

Reflect the school's ethos and set out clearly it's commitment to LAC
Be linked to the statutory framework
Be linked to other school policies such as admissions, safeguarding, equality and diversity (in which LAC should be specifically mentioned)
Be specific and detailed in the ways a school is going to carry out it's duty to support LAC
Include what the school will do to support staff who are working with LAC
Spell out the roles and reporting duties of key personnel in school, including governors, SLT, the DT and classroom teachers
Specify how school will link with external agencies, such as social care, VS, foster carers, CAMHs etc
Show how progress of LAC in all aspects of school life (academic, pastoral and extra curricular) will be tracked and monitored
Show what interventions and supports will be used when LAC are not progressing in line with their peers, academically and personally

The DT also has a role in ensuring that regular school policy specifically and overtly takes into account the specific needs of LAC. This is especially important in policies for safeguarding and inclusion and behaviour management for example. Furthermore, DTs need to ensure that school policies do not have any adverse impact on LAC, such as a policy on admissions interviews.

The Child's Voice

In promoting the educational achievement of the school's LAC, it is essential the DT (or someone to whom they have delegated this task) knows each child individually and builds a relationship with each one.

Many Looked After Children find trust in adults difficult so it is important a trusting, affirmative relationship is modelled to them, both at home and in school.

In doing so, the DT should listen to the child and their views concerning their education, achievements and progress, guide them where necessary, and represent those views in meetings when required.

Tracking and Monitoring

DTs are required to track and monitor the achievement and progress of each individual LAC putting in interventions and strategies for improvement where needed. When a LAC is new to the school, the DT should liaise with the previous educational setting to request that their school file and any previous PEPs are transferred without delay. This ensures they have all the prior information and data needed to form a view of the child's educational needs. They should also ensure that assessments are made by the child's new teachers to identify the young person's strengths and weaknesses and any barriers to learning, so that any support needed may be put in place as soon as possible.

All children are tracked and monitored routinely in schools. At such times, the DT should analyse the achievements and progress of their LAC as a group, comparing their outcomes to those of the year group as a whole and to other similar cohorts, which could be Children in Need.

Hillingdon Virtual School also requests up to date attainment and progress data in each subject to be presented at each PEP meeting. This is done via a range of student feedback forms which are emailed by the VSO prior to the PEP meeting.

Role in the PEP

Whilst in Hillingdon it is the responsibility of the VSO to initiate the PEP, the DT has a key role in preparation for it. Besides ascertaining the child's views and reviewing the targets and actions planned at the last PEP, the DT will need to obtain a very clear picture of how the child is achieving and progressing in each individual curriculum area. They will therefore need to ascertain from each of the child's teachers key information and data regarding their academic performance and progress. This can be gathered through the student feedback forms, mentioned above.

Teacher feedback to their students plays a very important role in improvement and progress, and this feedback also needs to be shared at the PEP meeting, so the carer and other key professionals can assist the child in implementing such feedback. It is also important that the DT brings to the meeting positive feedback, even when difficulties are being experienced by the child.

Meeting with the child before the meeting to ascertain their views and ensure they understand the PEP process if they are to attend
Circulating student feedback forms to all teachers and ensure adequate completion. It is also important that the DT is familiar with this feedback before the PEP
Ensuring an appropriate location for the PEP meeting has been booked if the meeting is to take place in school
Ensuring any additional school staff who need to attend the meeting are made aware and cover provided as appropriate
Compiling any data requested by the VSO for the meeting, This may include attendance and academic data, reports from 1-1 tutors/mentors, financial information regarding PPP spend etc.
Preparing to feedback on progress towards PEP targets and considering any new targets which are needed
Ensuring Section B of the ePEP document has been completed

Implementing support in school

Since the prime purpose of the PEP is to support the educational attainment of LAC, effective intervention strategies will need to be planned to support the child's targets. Statutory guidance is very clear that these targets need to be SMART (as explained in the PEP section of this handbook). The DT, being the person at the meeting with the most in-depth knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning, will need to take a lead in promoting the most effective intervention strategies, in proposing how they will be monitored and specifying what the success criteria will be. Where such strategies require funding, the DT will need to discuss the use of the devolved PPP funds from Hillingdon VS with the VSO at the PEP meeting.

The DT will also need to have a clear knowledge of other aspects of the child's school development, such as their involvement in the wider life of their school, how they have been rewarded, or otherwise, and any positions of responsibility they are undertaking. They may need to encourage the child to talk about their successes and achievements at the PEP meeting.

Recording and distribution of the PEP document should take place without delay and is the responsibility of the VSO. However, they can only complete this task in a timely fashion if all the information required has been provided In Hillingdon, PEPs are recorded online via an ePEP system with eGov Solutions; all DTs have their own access to this system and can view and contribute to PEP documents at any time.

The VSO will email all professionals concerned when the draft PEP document has been completed and is ready for review. If a DT has not received the PEP document within the appropriate timescale, they will need to follow this up so there is no drift in implementing strategies.

The DT will need to give careful consideration to the implementation of intervention strategies in school and work closely with the child's teachers and other staff in ensuring they are effective. This could include working with the child's teachers on teaching and learning styles; for example, is the work adequately differentiated for the child, is there enough scaffolding, are transitions between tasks causing difficulty? In implementing strategies decided upon at the PEP, the DT may also need to employ the services of other professionals, such as behaviour support workers and educational psychologists.

An essential checklist for DTs when preparing for a PEP meeting should include: