How We Help – Welfare Call

How We Help

Virtual Schools

The Welfare Call Group was established in 2002 to assist local authorities, virtual schools, education services, social services and children’s and families’ departments in meeting their statutory obligations with regards to monitoring vulnerable children, improving their educational outcomes and ‘narrowing the attainment gap’.

Supporting over 100 Local Authorities and Organisations throughout the UK, Welfare Call provides a platform to enable

Daily attendance and attainment monitoring of vulnerable cohorts
Production and management of robust Personal Education Plans (PEP):
Analysis and visualisation of the data collected to find actionable insights

Welfare Calls systems are fully integrated and as such are designed to work optimally together. By using our in-built reporting and analysis tools, Local Authorities are able to monitor a child’s progression through education and track their attendance, attainment, progress and PEPS in one place using one system as though it were a single entity – this ensures the Local Authority (and in particular Virtual Schools) meet requirement 4 stated in the guidance ‘Promoting the education of looked-after children and previously looked-after children’:

Information and data which Local Authorities can obtain through Welfare Call’s services is used to support early interventions, strategic developments and safeguarding initiatives leading to positive outcomes and a reduction in children disengaging in education.

Supporting over 100 Local Authorities

"VSHs should ensure the educational attainment and progress of children looked after by the local authority are monitored and evaluated as if those children attended a single school"

Designated Teachers

Welfare Call actively supports Designated Teachers to enable them to be the focal point within the school environment. By using Welfare Call’s single platform, DT’s can share data across all key stakeholders ensuring there is multi-agency engagement. This ultimately ensures there are clearer plans, actions and targets in place for the betterment of the vulnerable children.

Our user-friendly and intuitive platform ensures Designated Teachers can accurately disclose each individual child’s educational needs so that the necessary support and interventions can be put in place.

Designated Teachers are also empowered by the fact they can assign delegates from within our system and enable them to contribute to key areas within the PEP’s.

Social Workers

The Welfare Call Group assists Social Workers to ensure they fulfil their key role of supporting the education of children and young people in care. This is driven by the ability to provide them with up-to-date attendance information and notifications of absences to highlight any potential safeguarding concerns and enable them to take the necessary course of action.

Alongside this our online PEP platform allows the Social Workers to initiate robust and comprehensive personal education plans and communicate and track the child’s progress. This enables them to proactively engage with the schools to ensure the necessary support is in place for the children and young people they are responsible for.

Education Provisions

Welfare Call make over 9500 daily calls on behalf of the corporate parent to education provisions throughout the UK to collect the attendance data (and subsequent reasons for absence where necessary) for children in care and other vulnerable cohorts.

Our experience shows us that this daily communication enables us to build a rapport with the schools and glean additional information around the children’s attendance. This in turn gives Local Authorities much more accurate attendance and attainment data and enhances the safeguarding element attached to the vulnerable cohorts.

We know that there can be errors in school attendance registers, e.g. assumed or missing attendance, ambiguity over whether a mark is genuine or not, forward marking etc. Our live calling system eliminates this inaccuracy by prompting personnel to give detailed attendance reasons and obtain all missing or unknown marks. It also gives our Call Operators the flexibility to contact alternate provisions, obtain further detail regarding pupil absence and pass information regarding pupil’s attendance to the key personnel immediately should a safeguarding issue be identified.

Children in care have positive education experiences. In school, children in care have good attendance and behaviour. Permanent and fixed exclusions for pupils who are in care are low. The virtual school provides good support for schools to produce increasingly effective personal education plans, which include clear targets and the voice of the pupil. The engagement of children in care and care leavers in their education and pathway plans is improving.

Rutland County Council Children’s Services Inspection – 02/03/2020

All children in care, including those placed out of area, had an online personal education plan (PEP) meeting during the national lockdown, and this provided a good line of sight into the experiences of these children.

London Borough of Merton Children’s Services Inspection – 06/10/2020

Education is actively promoted for children in care and the virtual school is increasingly effective in ensuring that children make good progress and reach their potential. The quality and timeliness of personal education plans have improved significantly. Children benefit from regular reviews of their progress.

London Borough of Waltham Forest Children’s Services Inspection – 28/01/2019

The strong emphasis on ensuring that PEPs are of good quality and completed in a timely way is contributing well to children’s progress.

London Borough of Enfield Children’s Services Inspection – 04/03/2019

The virtual school provides effective support for the progress and attainment of children in care. The virtual school team has a sound understanding of the progress that children are making. As a result of effective support, many make good progress from their starting points. Personal education plans are mostly of good quality; they are reviewed termly and clearly identify the support that children need. Interventions are tailored to children’s needs and support their progress well.

London Borough of Barnet Children’s Services Inspection – 13/05/2019

Children and young people make good educational progress in care. Those who do not attend school have prompt access to suitable, good-quality registered alternative provision. Children’s progress is closely reviewed through personal education plans which have well-written targets, and this is an improvement since the last inspection. Urgent action is taken if children are missing from education or if their attendance reduces.

Worcestershire County Council Children’s Services Inspection – 17/06/2019

Personal education plans (PEPs) provide a sound basis to plan and review the progress children make. Children in care receive effective support from the virtual school staff, who understand their individual needs and act as effective advocates for them. This helps children stay on track to achieve their goals, and, consequently, many make good progress from their starting points.

London Borough of Tower Hamlets Children’s Services Inspection – 10/06/2019

The virtual school systematically monitors and evaluates the quality of personal education plans (PEPs), and, as a result, the quality of plans is improving. All PEPs have a clear focus on academic progress.

Swindon Borough Council Children’s Services Inspection – 01/07/2019

The rate of children’s attendance at school is rising. Relationships between the virtual school and designated teachers are strong. The personal education plan (PEP) process is well established and comprehensive. Children are making good educational progress.

Cornwall Council Children’s Services Inspection – 14/10/2019

The virtual school has a clear sense of purpose and direction and makes good use of performance data to target its activity to best effect. As a result, its influence and impact continue to grow. Ninety-six per cent of children in care have an up-to-date personal education plan (PEP). Better use is being made of the pupil premium grant.

Bedford Borough Council Children’s Services Focused Visit – 23/10/2019

has helped PEPs to completion last year

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is used by schools in more than Authorities

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is accessed by school accounts

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has an average of users access the system each weekday

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Welfare Call delivers the data you need to protect children and improve outcomes.