82 Virtual School Peer Review PDF 295 KB
Minutes:
The Executive Member for Education and the
Director of Education and Partnerships submitted a report for the Executive’s
consideration. The purpose of the report was to advise that Children’s Services
had commissioned a peer review, from the National Association of Virtual School
Heads (NAVSH), as part of the Council’s commitment to continuous improvement.
All local authorities were required to have a
Virtual School Head in place. A Virtual School was the commonly used term for
an individual or team employed by local authorities to support and champion the
learning needs of looked after children (CLA) in schools.
A system of peer review had been developed by
the National Association of Virtual School Heads (NAVSH) to help Virtual
Schools improve and develop. The Council
was keen to regularly access such support to independently assess its position
in relation to services provided to support children.
As part of regular engagement with the NAVSH,
and in line with the Council’s commitment to ensuring the sector-led
improvement opportunities provided by the NAVSH were used to their full
potential, Children’s Services had requested the NAVSH to undertake a peer
review of the Virtual School.
The NAVSH planned to assess the Council against
four core themes, which were detailed at paragraph 5 of the submitted report.
OPTIONS
The
Council could have chosen not to access the support and undertake an in-house
review or commission external specialists to deliver the review. Those options
were not recommended because it was healthy to seek external views from
external peers, who were experienced in the running of Virtual Schools.
Sourcing alternative specialists would have been a significant cost, while the
cost for the NAVSH peer review was kept low to only cover the costs of those
delivering the review.
ORDERED
That the
proposed peer review be endorsed.
REASON
Utilising
the NAVSH resource provided an opportunity to gather views from a range of
experienced Virtual School Heads from local authorities in other parts of the
country.