Children Social Care measures - Virtual school head

A measure to introduce a statutory strategic duty to promote the educational achievement of children with a social worker and children in kinship care (which in practice is likely to be discharged by an officer of the local authority known as a Virtual School Head).

Since September 2021 Virtual School Heads have had a non-statutory duty to promote the educational outcomes of all children with a social worker through strategic leadership and support to ensure these children receive the necessary educational opportunities and resources to succeed. This measure will make this role statutory, ensuring that every local authority must have a dedicated officer to champion the educational outcomes of these children, helping to improve their school attendance, engagement, and overall achievement. This change is needed, it is said, because these children have worse educational outcomes than their peers at every stage.

This new measure will extend Virtual School Head statutory duty to all children in kinship care, regardless of whether they spent time in care or not. This will give Virtual School Heads the legal mandate to continue to support these children, putting the role on the same footing as their duties towards looked-after and previously looked-after children.

The above analysis relates to Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which has not yet become law and may be subject to change as it passes through Parliament. We will be posting updates to this page if there are any key developments but the above may not reflect the latest changes to the legislation.  Please contact our School Support (schoolsupport@wslaw.co.uk)  or Schools HR (schoolshr@wslaw.co.uk) teams if you require an update on the latest status of the Bill.