Every Child Matters

Every Child Matters: Change for Children is a new approach to the well-being of children and young people from birth to age 19.

The Government's aim is for every child, whatever their background or their circumstances, to have the support they need. This means that a variety of organisations, including those involved with education, will be teaming up to share information and work together, to protect children and young people from harm and help them achieve what they want in life.

For more information visit the Every Child Matters website.

In May 2007, following the publication of the Care Matters: Time for Change White Paper, 11 Virtual School Head (VSH) pilots were established. They went live in September 2007. The role of the VSH is to raise attainment and ensure progression of looked after children; championing their needs across all the children’s services. This includes all children in the care of the pilot authorities, including those children placed out of authority, and children who are looked after by another authority but are educated within a pilot authority.

The role has been developed in response to the growing concerns about the poor experience of education that looked after children currently have. They tend to be in lower performing schools, be moved round between schools too often, and receive insufficient support within school to flourish. The VSH will be a senior individual within the local authority who will have responsibility for:

• monitoring the educational progress of all looked after children who are being educated within their authority, whatever the setting (school and 14-19 further education settings), as if they were attending a single school.
• monitoring the educational progress of their authority’s own children placed out of area.
• analysing data and ‘soft’ information on the educational achievement of looked after children to identify priorities for improving their education, both for individual children and for the overall cohort;
• working alongside school improvement partners, support and challenge schools to improve the quality of teaching and learning provision for looked after children. In particular working with school heads and designated teachers
• working across the local authority, and with its partners, to ensure high quality support for the education of looked after children to remove the barriers to their learning; and
• report to the Director of Children’s Services and Lead Member for Children’s services on the changes that need to be made to improve the education of looked after children, including through an annual local authority self assessment.

The eleven VSH pilots are in Bournemouth; Cambridge; Dudley; Gateshead; Greenwich; Merton; Norfolk; Salford; Stockport; Walsall and Warwickshire. Aimhigher Partnerships – with their renewed focus on better targeting of recipients, including those in care – will want to make contact with their local VSH to engage them in their Partnership plans. VSHs are being similarly encouraged to get involved in Aimhigher locally.

Further information about contact details for the 11 VSHs can be obtained from by emailing: pilots.virtualhead@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk