Legal Update: Education of looked-after children

In February, the children's minister, Nadhim Zahawi, announced that the government would provide an extra £7m a year for the extension of the virtual school heads scheme, alongside additional funding for personal advisers to cover the new responsibility for care leavers not in education, employment or training.

The funding accompanies new statutory guidance on children in care and care-leavers, which outlines the extended duties of both personal advisers and virtual school heads, published in February 2018 in line with the enactment of the Children and Social Work Act 2017. Under previous legislation, local authorities were only required to provide care leavers with personal adviser support until the age of 21, or up to 25 if they are in education or training. From 1 April they will be required to provide personal adviser support to all care leavers until the age of 25 regardless of whether the care leaver is in education or training. The duty on virtual school heads to promote the educational achievement of all looked-after children in care has been extended to cover children who are no longer looked-after, possibly because they have been adopted or returned home, up to the age of 18, as they continue to face educational challenges after leaving care.