"You're definitely more aware of what makes a ‘good’ PEP."

Gloucestershire Virtual School have been trailblazing the Invision360 PEP Quality Assurance Tool. Heavily involved in the conception and development of the tool, the team has benefited from increased collaboration between school carers, social workers, and all other professionals involved with PEP reports.

We catch up with Karla Broady, Assistant Head for Children in Care and Vicky Hurst, PEP Support Officer and Educational Advisor for Children in Care, to discover how this tool has helped them to improve efficiencies and find a better way to capture the child's voice within each plan.

Karla, can you tell us about the make up of your virtual school?

"We are a small team, but we work extremely closely together. We have a virtual school head and, beyond this, a small number of assistant heads, who each take responsibility for a specific area.  

Each assistant head has their mini team, complete with education advisors and support staff."

How did you typically manage your PEP quality assurance process before introducing Invision360?

"Before we began using the Invision360 PEP QA tool, our quality assurance processes were very heavily paper-driven.

It was a laborious process, with a combination of MS Word documents, shared spreadsheets, different coloured highlighter pens and even calculators!

As you can imagine, the whole process was time-consuming. There were lots of challenges involved, but most importantly, it didn't allow us to clearly identify our strengths and areas to develop within our PEPs. Before using the Invision 360 tool, it was much more challenging to showcase our areas of good practice.”

You were very much involved in the development of the PEP QA Tool; did you have any hesitations about what to expect?

"We knew that we needed something specific to help with our QA processes.

We'd previously moved our PEPs into an online system, and this was working really well. At this point, we were ready to move our QA processes online as well. Still, we knew that in an ideal world, we would need a solution that would allow us to marry the two together. We wanted something that would allow us to pull reports quickly and easily, as well as a system that would remove a lot of the time-consuming manual processes.

Thankfully, we were able to speak to the team at Invision360 about what we needed.  

When we first came on board, the Invision360 tool was very much in its early developmental stages. We were very excited about being given the opportunity to influence and shape something that would meet a genuine need – not just for us but for local authorities throughout the UK.

Of course, there were some early nerves and hesitation because we really didn't know what to expect.

We began with a slow and steady approach.

First of all, we asked our education advisors to quality assure a couple of PEP reports each. Everyone agreed that the first trial run felt a little overwhelming, possibly because it was such a different way of working than we were used to.

However, by the second and third trials, the whole process was so much better. Everyone felt extremely optimistic about the tool. We quickly adapted to how it worked and figured out what to expect throughout the process, which made it so much easier from start to finish. It became apparent very early on that this was a tool that was going to work really well for the entire team."

How has the Invision360 PEP QA tool improved collaboration between your team?

"Internally, we've always worked well as part of a team, and we were used to managing our PEP QA processes in pairs or small groups. It was important to us that we kept those positive working relationships together, so we took the first-ever trial of the tool as a collective group. We also mutually underwent a thorough training process with the Invision360 team, which was very useful.

From there, the tool was used by small groups, which allowed everyone to build their confidence rather than being left to their own devices. Since then, most people tend to do their QA tasks individually, which sums up how effective the tool has been.

The tool has met our objectives by helping us to improve our efficiencies. It's saved us so much time because those manual processes are no longer there. It's also helping us to review the data at hand and hone in on specific areas of strength and development, which allows us to work far more collaboratively with schools, social care, and other agencies.

One of the other unexpected benefits of working with Invision360 is that we've developed new ways of working that suit individual people. We can let our education advisors know when PEP plans are coming out, as well as what deadlines they need to work to and which areas of focus need to be considered. From there, the education advisors can manage their QA processes in the ways that suit them. Some people prefer to do one per week; for others, they can do them all in one go.

It's allowed us to focus on working patterns that suit individuals. By empowering each education advisor to work in their preferred way, we're ensuring that everyone can work together to the best of their ability.

When we're working to our best, we know that children and young people will be the ones to benefit."

Karla, can you tell us whether you have seen any improvement in your data and insights since using the tool?

"It's making a huge difference because I can quickly and easily download and review specific reports as well as visually identify where we need to make changes for our next round of plans.

I can visually see where there might be an area of weakness or an area of concern.

If there's something that hints that we need to delve a little deeper, I can speak directly to the virtual school head, and we can make sure that we are making changes where they need to be made. It's so much easier to look holistically at everything, which is crucial to what we do and the children and young people that we support."

Vicky, what can you tell us about how the Invision360 PEP QA tool allows you to make sure that the child's voice is listened to within the PEP reports?

"It's working wonders, and it has been confirmed that we have an excellent pupil voice within our PEP templates. Previously, there was an open text box where school carers or social workers could add any further relevant information, such as what is going well for the child or whether there were any specific areas of concern.

As this was one singular box, it was difficult to immediately identify who was inputting their thoughts and whether other professionals agreed with those comments.

But now, the Invision360 tool has allowed us to break this down into much more usable data.

By adding separate discussion boxes for individual professionals, we can immediately see who has given their input into specific areas. It clarifies the range of perspectives of everyone involved and allows us to really identify and capture each child's voice within the PEP report."

What has been the most helpful aspect of the tool for your virtual school?

"Now we can be so much more consistent within our PEP reports.

Maintaining consistency is critical to the quality of the output. It means that we are confident that everyone is working in the same way, with the same processes in place. Now, our reports are far more structured, with no room for ambiguity or subjectivity.

We have many different people quality assessing PEPs, and it can be challenging to maintain objectivity. Previously, we would have to QA our own reports or those of a close colleague because QAing a PEP where you know the student, you've been to the meetings, or you've been heavily involved with the school is very different to QAing a PEP where you don't know anything about that young person.

But now, thanks to the Invision360 tool, we can assign people PEPs from a wider range of educational advisors. This is having a significant impact on efficiency, and it means that we can guarantee that each PEP will always meet the highest standards with the correct level of information included within them."

Vicky, you've been using the Invision360 tool as part of a CPD opportunity. Can you tell us more about this?

"This has been an enormous benefit to us. I recently visited a local school where I encouraged a headteacher and designated teacher to use the tool to assess the quality of some of their own PEPs. It gave them some excellent insights into what level of detail and information they should be including within their reports.

We're continuing to expand this further because it's such a valuable CPD opportunity for other professionals. We'll continue to invite schools to come on board and quality-assess some of their own PEP reports using the tool.

It's also pleasing to see that colleagues from wider services within Gloucestershire County Council are also using the tool for their own quality assurance purposes. This is a tool that is improving quality assurance for everyone, as it makes you much more aware of what information is needed to make a great plan."

Finally, Karla, what would you say to another virtual school thinking about adopting this tool?

"I would absolutely recommend it; it's been such a positive resource for us. It's pulled all of the information we need into one central location that is easy to access. Reports are much easier to write, and we can visually see where we are within each cycle, which significantly improves communication and collaboration.

But most importantly, this tool hasn't just helped us to work more effectively. It's allowing us to write superior PEP reports, which will have a significant impact on improving outcomes for children and young people."

To find out more about how the Invision360 PEP QA Tool can support your virtual school quality assurance processes visit our dedicated page, or book a demo today!