We Are Family – Schools Event

Last Wednesday over 80 Adopters, Prospective Adopters, Virtual School leaders, Social Workers and Teachers came to the Culture Space at Canada Waters library in South London. They heard presentations on ‘Why Children Placed From Care Need Support In School’ . First Adopter and Adoption UK senior manager Scott Casson- Rennie spoke of the need and then Islington Virtual School Head Hermione Michaud covered the support her Virtual School provides. The evening wound up with a Q&A that was dominated by questions on the Pupil Premium Plus.

Scott’s presentation is below

20160229 Extending School Support to Permanently Placed Children SCR & GM

His introduction to his adopted family was special. Scott and his husband Tris were the first same sex adopters to be approved in their LA back in 2006. They have adopted three boys and all of them were defined as ‘hard to place’ by the agency. Being older children at placement, a long time in care with multiple moves and needing lots of support especially at school. They are now 17, 16 and 9 years old. Check out the picture on the presentation to see his happy family and what good looking boys they all are.  Scott interlaced his presentation with tales of the school gate. He never thought when they adopted he would be at school twice a week to sort out the problems his oldest was causing. But now his youngest is benefiting, he is at the same primary school and they know the Casson-Rennie’s well so youngest doesn’t get sent home with a behaviour book like his big brother. His eldest is nearing 18 and in college, which is not going as well, middle son has remained in High School for 6^th Form with an EHCP and limited GCSEs, this has really paved the way for the their youngest son and for others who will need the school to flex to accommodate others in the same position.  In secondary school the oldest son’s problems escalated with constant transitions between classes and teachers. It wasn’t until he got into year 10 that life became easier and the school finally understood. It was good job that Scott was a ‘stay at home dad’ during those years.

The presentation covers all the main points. It was a pity the internet connection wasn’t working so Scott couldn’t play the two extracts. Here they are:

Attachment Theory In A Nutshell by Doctor Robin Balbernie 

www.vimeo.com/88337039

This is important to understand as attachment disorders will affect the majority of children placed from care. All parents and guardians need to be sure they have understood the basics and use the information to ask pertinent questions at placement.

Oxford CSE example Womans Hour 16th February 2014

Womans Hour Oxford CSE interview

This is a tough listen but necessary. Adoption can be tough and we all need to prepare ourselves. It lasts 19 minutes and Scott was only going to play a four minute extract but I thought the whole interview is important to listen to. An older single mother adopting an older girl aged 9 who had been taken into care due to sexual abuse. Given the right support we can help victims of sexual abuse, but refused support because the two LAs, Stoke on Trent and Oxford were arguing? What chance did she have?

And finally ‘Beyond The Adoption Order’

Download it here: Beyond The Adoption Order

This is a long and sometimes disturbing read about adoption disruption and what the realities of life are for many adopters. I believe all adopters and prospective adopters should get a copy and read it. It will take some time, but you are embarking on a lifetime journey with adoption and your parenting skills will be tested when you are bringing up a child who has suffered early life trauma.

Hermione Michaud was next with this presentation:

20160224 HM & CD Extending support to permanently placed children

Hermione is the Virtual Head Teacher in Islington and has a small team who work with her supporting Children In the Care of the borough in schools. These might be inside or outside the borough. This is her statutory responsibility. But she has extended that care to adopted children and those placed with Special Guardians. She explained that she attended meetings with adopter and guardians and was being inundated with variants of a simple question. “You used to support our children but after they were placed with us you just stopped. Why?” Unlike some VSHs I have asked this question Hermione didn’t go on to say ” Because it’s not my responsibility” or “Because they now have you to advocate for them” or ” I don’t have the money”. No she went back to her boss and made a case and got funding for the wonderful Claire Doubleday, who should have been there last week but was ill. Claire works with adopter and guardianship families to support them and their children in Islington’s schools.

The presentation shows the extent of the support they provide and the success of partnership working with PAC-UK and the North London Adoption and Fostering Consortium. They are co located with the Adoption and Family First teams. This is a busy school with 378 looked after children and 32 new placements since April 2015. Hermione made it plain she knows her schools and can always get in to talk about placed children as well as looked after children. I wouldn’t want to argue with her! “Not all Virtual Schools are the same!!!!”

She covered the communication with schools and social workers and working with Educational Psychologists to support these children. ” Our success in part is due to co-locations, already good links, consortium, contracts with PAC-UK, support for innovation, and a well staffed Virtual School”. School selection, PEPs, Pupil Premium Plus  were all discussed. A list of schools in the borough with whom they are working including one, Yerbury,  that has 17 adopted children. Hermione was obviously proud of these schools and they way they have worked together to help these children.

One of the main issues she raised was that for these children the LA is not the corporate parent. Amongst other things that means the schools get the Pupil Premium Plus direct providing the parents/guardians self declare. The school then decides what to do with this money although it is expected that they will consult with the child’s parents. This led to some confused questions at the end and I do wish my voice was working so I could have set the record straight! I will attempt it here, but first what a lovely quote from an Islington Special Guardian.

‘The support received in helping with children changing schools has been tremendous.  My family literally would not have been able to cope without this support.  Getting the basic educational support for my SGO children would have been really difficult without Virtual School & I’d like to say thank you for the tremendous help’ Special Guardian

Pupil Premium Plus.  

There was some confusion in the Q & A over the Pupil Premium Plus. It is paid to schools where they have adopters or guardians that self declare in time for the January census. The parents/guardians need to evidence that their children have been placed with them and a court order has approved the placement. It is currently worth £1900. See my guide to claiming the PPP here:

PPP guide

There are  a number of guides that cover the various regulations. See this from PAC-UK

PAC-UK guide.

Also this from First4 Adoption

First4Adoption guide

Key points.

• Although the schools get the premium direct it still comes via the LA, but unlike the PPP for CIC the LA should just pass it on to the school. For academies who knows?
• The premium is additional funding given to schools to improve the educational and personal outcomes for pupils who have been adopted from care or placed with guardians, including (but not limited to) their attainment. It is not intended that the additional funding should be used to back-fill the general school budget nor is it the policy intention that the funding should be used to support other groups of pupils, such as (for example) those with special educational needs or who are low attaining.
• It is not to be thrown into the general pupil premium pot used to support free school meal children. Adopters can afford to feed their children and buy them school uniforms.
• It is not ring fenced for a particular child. This causes great confusion at some schools. The idea is that some children may need more than £1900, some children may leave in the school financial year,but it is for these children as a group. But if the child is the only one at the school then it has to be for that one child.
• Consulting parents and guardians. The DfE has said this. ‘ The role of parents and guardians in their child’s education is crucial and we expect schools will want to engage with them about the education of the pupils on their roll, irrespective of whether they attract the Pupil Premium. However, we would hope that schools would want to take particular advantage of this relationship with regards to children adopted from care, as the school may have only become aware of the child’s status when they are told this by the child’s parent ahead of the School Census and they may be unfamiliar with the detail of any barriers to learning that child may be facing as a result of their history.’
• The DfE also said ‘The characteristics of children adopted from care do not disappear overnight. Schools may find Virtual School Heads (based within the local authority) and the designated teacher at the school a valuable source of information’.

I am constantly told of schools getting this badly wrong including a few examples last Wednesday. I believe it is time that the DfE issued new guidance and when sending the money remind the schools what it is for. I am on the advisory board of Beech Lodge School and we receive highly traumatised children who cannot succeed in mainstream education. but it is often nothing to do with their intelligence. They need support with other developmental needs. See

The Boy In The Blanket

So a good night, plenty to think about and much more work to do. I was pleased to meet so many lovely people and get plenty of hugs!

Gareth Marr

29th February 2016

Tags: #attachmentaware, adopted children, adoption schools, adoption support, Beech Lodge School, Beyond the Adoption Order, Children of trauma, virtual schools