Guidance on Personal

Education Allowances
for Looked After Children
Consultation Response Form
The closing date for this consultation is: 2 April
2008
Your comments must reach us by that date.
THIS FORM IS NOT INTERACTIVE. If you wish to respond electronically
please use the online or offline response facility available on the
Department for Children, Schools and Families e-consultation website
(http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations).

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Name Zoe Williams, Policy and Campaigns Officer
Organisation (if applicable) Barnardo’s
Address: Tanners Lane
Barkingside
Ilford, Essex
IG6 1QG

If your enquiry is related to the policy content of the consultation you can
contact Thomas Rahilly on:

Telephone: 020 72735150

e-mail: thomas.rahilly@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk

If you have a query relating to the consultation process you can contact the
Consultation Unit on:

Telephone: 01928 794888

Fax: 01928 794 113

e-mail: consultation.unit@dfes.gsi.gov.uk
Please tick the box below that best describes you as a respondent.

Local Authority School Parent or Carer

5 Other
Please Specify:

Barnardo’s is one of the largest children’s charities working in 380 projects and with
110,000 children, young people and their families and carers across the UK. We work
in some of the most disadvantaged communities and neighbourhoods and our services
include 24 fostering and adoption services; 15 support services for young people
leaving care; 6 services providing children’s rights and advocacy for children in care and
3 residential special schools.

We use the knowledge gained from our direct work with children to campaign for
better childcare policy and to champion the rights of every child. With the right help,
committed support and a little belief, even the most vulnerable children can turn their
lives around.

Barnardo’s was represented on the stakeholder group preceding the publication of

‘Care Matters’; we chaired one of the four task groups exploring the future care
population and sat as a member on a second one looking at placement provision and
quality.
Having read the draft guidance please answer the following questions.

1 Is the guidance clear about how personal education allowances should be used
to support the education of looked after children?

Very clear 5 Largely clear Not very clear

Not at all clear

Comments:

The Guidance clearly states that the personal education allowance should be used to
support the education of looked after children and sets out the rationale behind this.

The educational under achievement of children in care up to year 11 is well researched

and documented, but despite the long standing recognition of this issue there appears
to have been no substantial improvement in recent years. Barnardo’s therefore
welcomes the overdue attention to this area in ‘Care Matters’, including the
introduction of the personal educational allowance.

We have some concerns regarding the clarity of what activities would and would not
be considered within the scope of the allowance – we have set out our concerns in
this regard in our response to question 3.

2 Does the draft guidance give enough clarity on which looked after children and
young people should be eligible for a personal education allowance?

5 Yes No No view

Comments:
We welcome the assertion in the Guidance that “Local authorities should use personal
allowances to help ensure that looked after children are making progress with their
education, irrespective of their absolute level of attainment.” We agree that
this resource should be available to all looked after children, and be based on high
expectations of what they can achieve given the right support.

One young person aged 16 told us “Low expectations of you in school - I didn’t think my
GCSEs results were very good but my teacher said she thought they were ok considering my
background”.

The Guidance sets out a government expectation that local authorities make available
£500 for each looked after child identified as eligible. We are concerned that funds for
 personal education allowances will be drawn from the Area Based Grant and will not
be ring-fenced. We believe this may jeopardise the availability of funds for some
looked after children. All looked after children must be able to access their personal
educational allowance to meet their individual educational needs. Although it must be a
priority to improve the numbers of looked after children achieving five GCSEs grades
A*-C; those who are doing well and are likely to meet this target should also be given
support to continue to improve and not be denied their allowance because of budget
constraints.

3 Does the draft guidance provide enough detail of the support that should be
funded through personal education allowances and how they should not replace
the support that local authorities, schools and other services provide for looked
after children?

Yes 5 No Not Sure

Comments:

We welcome the statement in the Guidance that makes it clear personal education
allowances must be seen as an additional resource and “are not intended to replace
services, support or resources that the local authority, carers or other agencies
working with looked after children already provide, or that are provided to all children
as a matter of course.”

The examples listed in paragraphs 9 and 10 are intended to indicate the types of
activities that would and would not be considered within the scope of the personal
education allowance.

We are concerned that the distinction between the two groups can be difficult to
identify in practice. For example, trips and visits organised by the school as part of the
curriculum would not fall within the scope of the personal educational allowance, but
“additional, personalised trips or visits, for example to see a play that is being studied
as part of the school curriculum” could be covered by the allowance.

We believe the Guidance would benefit from greater explanation illustrated by specific
examples and case studies, of the types of activities that would fall within the scope of
the allowance.

4 Do the proposals in the draft guidance give looked after children and young
people a strong say in how personal education allowances should be used?
 Yes 5 No Not Sure

Comments:

We believe it is vital that children and young people have a clear understanding of who
is responsible for making decisions on the allocation of funds in order for them to have
a strong say in how the allowances should be used.

The Guidance should set a clear expectation that local authorities provide children and
young people with information about the decision making structures relating to the
allowance, so that children and young people understand:
• who makes decisions on the allocation of money from the personal educational
allowance
• how to contact the person making the decisions, even if it is through somebody
else
• how they will come to the decisions they make
• what time-frame decisions should be made in

Evidence gathered from our services demonstrates that lengthy and poorly defined
decision making procedures are huge barriers to children and young people accessing
provision they are entitled to. In a focus group with children and young people at a
Barnardo’s children’s rights service in London, young people told us they welcome the
availability of such funds but reported that it could be difficult for them to get in touch
with social workers when they need to. Quick decisions could be vital to the success
of interventions that the personal educational allowance could offer.

We would encourage the government to adopt a more flexible approach to the

distribution of the personal educational allowance in order to make it more accessible
and responsive. Pilots could be used to assess if the fund is best placed with social
workers, or if the budget should be held by foster carers or key workers in residential
units. In a recent consultation with Barnardo’s foster carers, we asked them who their
foster children go to in the first instance when they need additional educational
supported and help with the associated costs. Well over half the carers we consulted
told us young people go to them in the first instance; only four respondents said
children went to their social workers. We asked the same question to care leavers and
most said they went to their foster parents in the first instance.

We also believe there would be value in piloting whether older children might manage
the money themselves. Placing budgets with older young people would help them with
budgeting and money management skills. The ability to manage a budget is a key skill
for the transition to adulthood yet looked after young people are rarely presented
with opportunities to build these important skills. Research published by A National
Voice showed that 88% of housing professionals surveyed felt that young care leavers
were not sufficiently prepared to manage their rent and other finances. (‘No Place Like
 Home’, 2006. A survey of 581 people half care leavers, and half either leaving care or
housing professionals).

It is vital that the onus in identifying opportunities that could be funded by the personal
educational allowance is not always on the child or young person themselves. We
recognise the links made between the Personal Education Plan and the personal
educational allowance. We are encouraged by the assertion that “Local Authorities
should not wait for a formal review to consider how looked after children can access
support…”.
There should be a clear expectation on local authorities to provide information to
young people but also to their foster carers; residential key workers; and teachers on
the personal educational allowance and to identify opportunities to use it. Professional,
independent advocates have a vital role to play in relation to improving the educational
outcomes for children in care in particular and could advise on appropriate and
creative ways to utilise funds from the personal educational allowance.

5 Please use this space for further comments.

Comments:
Thank you for taking the time to let us have your views. We do not intend to
acknowledge individual responses unless you place an 'X' in the box below.

Please acknowledge this reply 2

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2 Yes No

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Thank you for taking time to respond to this consultation.

Completed questionnaires and other responses should be sent to the address

shown below by 2 April 2008

Send by post to: Education and Wellbeing Team, Children in Care Division,
DCSF, 1E Caxton House, Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NA
Send by e-mail to: laceducation.consultation@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk