3.9.20 Education Policy for Adoptive Carers and Children for Whom the Plan is Adoption

1. Purpose

The purpose of the Education Policy for Adoptive Carers and Children for whom the plan is Adoption is to ensure that children and their prospective Adopters are suitably supported in their homes to make expected progress with their educational development.

An education policy for these carers should therefore provide guidance and set out the expectations of carers who play a significant role in influencing the educational achievement of those children who remain Children in Care or young persons in the care of Lincolnshire County Council until their plans for adoption are formalised in court.

This policy document should be read in conjunction Children's Services Policy, Values and Principles, which contains the overall policy and strategy for the provision of services to children, young people and families and provides the context for all policy and procedures within Children's Services and with the Education Policy for Foster Carers located in the Foster Carers Handbook.

2. Legal and Regulatory Reference

The Children Act 1989 and associated regulation and guidance
Adoption Act 2002
Children's Act 2004
Care Matters 2006
National Minimum Standards for Adoption 2011

STANDARD 7 - Promoting educational attainment

Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005
Regulation 15 - Requirement to obtain information about the child
Regulation 17 - Requirement to prepare child's permanence report for the adoption panel
Regulation 24 - Requirement to provide preparation for adoption
Regulation 31 - Proposed placement
Regulation 35 - Requirements imposed on the adoption agency before the child may be placed for adoption
Regulation 36 - Reviews

3. Policy Aims

To ensure that all children, for whom the plan is Adoption, achieve to their full education potential, while they are in the care of Lincolnshire County Council. Consistent with LCC new policies, the aims of the Education Policy for Adoptive Carers and Children for whom the plan is Adoption is built around five key Principles and Priorities as described in the Lincolnshire Children & Young people Partnership plan.

Lincolnshire County Council undertakes to work in partnership through the child's Social Worker and the Perspective adopters to maximise the education and achievement of children is to ensure that this is actively promoted through out the planning and preparation of the placement.

Plans should be reviewed at each step to ensure that Children are supported to achieve their educational potential.

The 28 day and 3 month reviews will place centrally the needs of each child to have access to a range of educational resources to support their learning and have opportunities beyond the school day to engage in activities which promote learning in line with their assessed need.

4. Guidance

At the outset of any prospective adopters preparation for adoption information from previous Looked after children's Reviews and from any previous school or early years setting is shared in full with the potential adopters at the information sharing meeting.

Information from those settings should be made available to the prospective school or early years settings that the child is considering joining and the prospective adopters and the supervising social worker will meet with the setting to develop a plan for the transition.

This plan will be shared at the first review 28 days following the placement of the child with the carers and again at the 6 month review it is the role of the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) to ensure that the educational setting is working with the parents to meet the educational needs of the child are being met.