Coventry Virtual School - guidance and support

Your role in supporting education

As a social worker, you contribute to the child’s education by:

• Ensuring that education remains a priority in care planning and review meetings.
• Supporting timely completion and quality of Personal Education Plans (PEPs). The latest statutory guidance highlights that responsibility for ensuring high-quality, current PEPs lies jointly with social workers and schools.
• Liaising with schools, carers, and the Virtual School to coordinate support.
• Helping to secure and maintain appropriate education placements.
• Advocating for the child’s educational needs in multi-agency settings.
• Supporting transitions between schools and key stages, including admissions and reintegration.
• Raising concerns promptly if a child is at risk of exclusion, poor attendance, or disengagement.
• Encouraging attendance at school and participation in enrichment activities.

Working with the Virtual School

The Virtual School staff understand the wide range of responsibilities social workers manage and aim to provide practical support to ease the educational workload.

We provide:

• Access to your child’s ePEP records and education progress data.
• Allocation of a Virtual School professional who can offer advice and support tailored to individual cases.
• A platform to support the arranging and management of PEP meetings,
• Relevant training opportunities.
• Guidance on admissions, exclusions, and SEND processes.
• Collaboration with other local authority teams including SEND, Attendance, Alternative Provision, and Youth Justice to reduce barriers to education.
• Support with monitoring Pupil Premium Plus funding impact and usage.

Training opportunities

We encourage all Social Workers to participate in:

• New to role Education Training for Social Workers
• Termly Education Update session for Social Workers
• Themed drop-in sessions for Social Workers
• PEP moderation opportunities

Upcoming training and booking details can be found on our training page.

The importance of information sharing

Effective communication and information sharing from social workers are vital to enable Coventry Virtual School to proactively support the education and wellbeing of children and young people in care.

You must inform the Virtual School at the earliest opportunity about any changes to care planning that may impact education, including but not limited to:

• Changes of social worker
• Changes of placement, even during early planning stages
• Significant events or circumstances affecting the young person that may lead to heightened emotional needs, changes in behaviour, or disengagement at school

Early notification allows the Virtual School to:

• Adjust support plans swiftly
• Liaise with schools effectively
• Coordinate timely Personal Education Plan (PEP) reviews and multi-agency meetings
• Provide targeted interventions and guidance to all involved professionals
• Support you in initiating processes with other service areas such as EHCP file transfers, school admissions, and other key transitions to prevent drift and delay

By working together and sharing information promptly, we can help ensure every child’s education remains stable and responsive to their needs.

If you need support or have questions, please get in touch, we’re here to help.