Trish Lewis provided the Forum with an update on the work of the Looked After Children Education Services (LACES) Team and the Looked After Children Pupil Premium.

A breakdown of the current staffing arrangements in the LACES team was provided, alongside how the team is funded, partially through Pupil Premium Plus (PP+) and other grants. Within this, additional funding secured for the year 21-22 was set out. Further detail was provided on the PP+ side on the budget, and it was noted how out of the total PP+ per child, £410 is allocated to the Wirral Virtual School, whilst the remaining £2000 went to the schools. The Forum were pointed towards tables in the report, which provided a breakdown of how schools were using this funding, and a breakdown of how the Top Slice funding is used by the Virtual School.

A number of positive impacts of the LACES arrangements were noted, including a 98% completion rate of Personal Education Plans (PEPs).

An outline of how Recovery Funding has been utilised through management by Ranstad was also provided, whilst it was set out how School-Led Tuition funding had not yet been utilised due to a number of factors, but that LACES were working with partners to find creative ways to utilise this funding.

Trish Lewis concluded by setting out how there was sufficient funding in reserve to allow for the appointment of two Band H members of staff to ease capacity issues within the existing Team.

In the ensuing discussion, further clarity was provided on a number of topics queried by members including:

• The advertisement of vacancies as fixed-term positions.
• The potential clawback of grant funding if it is not used.
• How PP+ is circulated to schools and the timings of this.
• How the Local Authority (LA) compared to other LA’s regarding caseload and numbers of Education Progress Officers (EPOs).

An updated report would be brought back to the School’s Forum in January providing the information requested within the recommendations.

Resolved – That

1. The Forum noted the report
2. Further information be provided by schools as to how they are using PP+ particularly in relation to ‘other’.
3. Further investigation of the impact of the spending of PP+ be provided.