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We share how Virtual schools are overcoming the 14 key challenges associated with PEPs
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A Personal Education Plan (PEP) is designed to support children and young people 3-18 get the help they need to achieve their educational potential—adult outcomes for children looked after are among the lowest.
Children with a personal education plan are more vulnerable to unemployment, mental health challenges and poor adult outcomes than their peers. Around 41% of care leavers aged 19-21 struggle to engage with education, employment or training.
In this article, we share how Virtual schools are overcoming the 14 key challenges associated with the personal education plan process.
A PEP is a legal document created by the Local Authority’s Virtual School for children in care placements.
**It is important to note that terminology may vary between different VirtualSchools. For example, it is thought that the children and young people themselves prefer the term ‘Education Review’ rather than the legislative title of ‘Personal Education Plan’. Similarly, Children Looked After (CLA) and LookedAfter Children (LAC) are used intermittently.
For clarity in this article, we will use the commonly recognised terms in the legislation but recognise your LA may use alternative language.
All stakeholders involved in the child or young person’s educational development will have input in the creation of the PEP, including:
In short, a PEP is an education-focused plan for children in care, whereas an EHCP is a broader plan involving more agencies that work to address the complexities of a child or young person with SEND.
There is a significantly higher likelihood that a child in care will also have SEND needs. Around 58% of children in care for at least a year also have SEND needs. It can be common for a child to have both an EHCP and a PEP.
Under the Children Act 1989,Virtual schools have a legal duty to ensure that every child in care has a PEP initiated within 20 days of entering care. They are also responsible for the statutory termly review of the PEP to assess progress and set new targets.
The PEP QA Tool complements your digital PEP platform, consolidating all the information required for quality assurance of PEPs in a single, easy-to-access central location.
With a visual representation of each cycle, everyone can track the progress and follow the same processes consistently.
"The PEP QA Tool hasn't just helped us to work more effectively, It's allowing us to write superiorPEP reports, which will have a significant impact on improving outcomes for children and young people."
Karla Broady
Assistant Head of Children in Care Gloucestershire Virtual School
Virtual schools often struggle with fragmented data sources.Information about children in care is scattered across various systems, making it challenging to centralise and access essential data quickly.
Achieving uniformity in the quality and content of a personal education plan is a persistent challenge. Inconsistent approaches can lead to discrepancies in how a child’s educational needs are identified and supported. Without a framework for quality assurance, Virtual schools can struggle to produce high-qualityPEPs.
The manual creation and updating of a personal education plan are often time intensive for professionals.
Admin-heavy tasks, like collating and chasing contributions from various professionals reduce virtual school capacity for analysis of current provision. Virtual school teams are stuck in functional PEP processes.For provision to improve nationally, virtual school teams must have functional processes as a minimum, striving for strategic goals.
A personal education plan must be updated every term and reviewed to meet statutory requirements. Yet, virtual schools often face challenges meeting these deadlines due to staff shortages, administrative delays or an overwhelming caseload.
Collaborating with carers and professionals is critical for effective PEPs, but coordinating input from multiple stakeholders can be complex.
We must not forget the challenges with engaging the children and young people themselves. Despite the positive impact a personal education plan can have on a young person’s life outcomes, encouraging them to participate actively in the PEP process can be challenging.
Ensuring that PEPs are not only completed but are also effective and impactful requires robust quality assurance mechanisms.
Many virtual schools lack the resources to review plans comprehensively, whether that is due to limited staffing resources, team knowledge or operational processes.
Balancing the need for personalised support with adherence to a structured framework can be difficult.
A personal education plan should be just that, personal.With the listed challenges virtual schools face when creating PEPs, personalisation is often lacking due to quality professional contributions and operational processes (like centralised information).
Does your virtual school team experience a high staff turnover? Or are team members performing several roles in one? Frequent staff turnover and limited training opportunities mean many staff members are not fully equipped to create effective PEPs.
Using CPD opportunities to up skill your team will improve efficiency, quality and standards across your provision.
Virtual schools must provide detailed reports on the educational progress of children in care to meet statutory requirements and inform policy decisions. Manually generating these reports is time-consuming and prone to errors.
Educational and care-related policies are subject to frequent changes, requiring PEP processes to adapt quickly. A system operating in a functional-only capacity will be unable to move with the latest statutory changes and best practices.
While digital systems streamline PEP creation and management, not all stakeholders have equal access to or familiarity with technology. Your virtual school may struggle to collect vital information and input from carers or social work key workers due to a digital divide.
When children and young people are experiencing turbulence in their home lives, keeping educational stability where possible is a priority for virtual schools. When a personal education plan is complex, various professionals from education, social and health care are involved.
Virtual schools can be overwhelmed by the admin associated with collecting advice, evidence and view points from all stakeholders. It is vital all information is kept in one place- minimising additional time delays due to school and placement changes.
Every virtual school feels financial and resource limitations. Budgets are tight, making virtual schools unable to employ enough staff to meet the growing need for PEPs.
Transitioning between school phases or into independent living is among the hardest things children and young people will face. It is vital that children with a personal education plan have structure and support in place to maximise their success.
In 2023, the number of placements in semi-independent or independent living settings rose to 11%. Meaning the need for a collaborative approach to transition planning is needed.
Without access to all data, historical information and input from all stakeholders, transition planning becomes time-consuming and lacks proactivity.
Creating and managing high-quality PEPs comes with a range of challenges, from fragmented data systems to time-intensive processes. Virtual schools across England are implementing innovative solutions to overcome these barriers and ensure every child in care receives the support they need to succeed.
Virtual schools are adopting centralised platforms that consolidate information about a child’s care, education, and additional needs.
This streamlines the PEP process, ensuring that all stakeholders—from social workers to virtual school heads—can access up-to-date, accurate information in one place.
Virtual schools are implementing online platforms that allow for easy input, tracking, quality assurance and updating of PEPs.
These digital tools also provide templates aligned with statutory frameworks, ensuring consistency and quality across all PEPs.
Time pressures often compromise the quality of PEPs. To save time, virtual schools are using automated workflows that streamline document creation and approval processes.
For example, automated reminders ensure that reviews occur on time, and pre-populated forms reduce the burden on staff, allowing them to focus on meaningful interactions with children.
Virtual schools are addressing skill gaps by using software to benchmark their PEP quality with other virtual schools. Allowing for targeted CPD similar to the SEND sector.
Many virtual school CPD plans focus on statutory requirements, best practices, and the use of new software tools.
Virtual schools with clear strategy plans for improvement use dashboards that provide a real-time overview of all PEPs under their jurisdiction. These tools help identify trends, flag overdue reviews, and track individual and virtual school progress.
Compliance is a moving target due to frequent changes to education and care policies. Virtual schools are overcoming this by using platforms that are regularly updated to reflect the latest statutory guidance.
By embracing innovative technologies, training staff, and centralising processes, virtual schools are breaking down the barriers to effective PEP creation.
These strategies ensure that every child in care has a robust educational plan, paving the way for improved outcomes and brighter futures.
Want to see how the Invision360 PEP Quality Assurance tool works? We have a demo for that.
Book your free demo for the PEP Quality Assurance tool here.
Looking for examples of virtual schools who have easily transformed their personal education plan quality assurance process with us? We have a whole range of case studies in our Impact section.
More articles you’ll like:
Is Educational Psychologist Advice the glue in the EHCP process?
How Hertfordshire County Council have transformed their EHCP process
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