Salford Virtual School Team

Salford Virtual School is highly ambitious for our children in care. As corporate parents, we are driven by the question 'Would this be good enough for my child?' in the work that we do.

We passionately believe that our cared for children deserve the best education possible, and advocate on their behalf to ensure that they have access to the best educational opportunities within a high quality educational setting.

Cared for children are the children that are subject to Care Orders and those who are voluntarily accommodated who live with foster carers, in residential homes or remain with their family.

In these cases the local authority acts as their corporate parent, responsible for their care and support. The Virtual School takes the lead in ensuring that all of our cared for children who are of school age have the best educational opportunities possible and that there is consistency of approach across Salford schools.

We work in partnership with schools, social workers and other professionals to ensure that:

• all Salford cared for children have an appropriate school place
• all Salford cared for children have a high quality Personal Educational Plan
• all Salford cared for children achieve good outcomes
• the educational achievement of cared for and some categories of previously cared for children is prioritised

What service does the Virtual School team offer?

As well as our support for cared for children, we also provide an advice and guidance service for: 

• certain categories of previously cared for children (those who are adopted, subject to a Special Guardianship Order, or a Child Arrangement Order, straight from care)
• children on Child in Need and Child Protection Plans
• children in formal Kinship Care

For cared for children, we collect, monitor and analyse attendance, attainment and progress data to help us to prioritise our work.

We work closely with schools, social workers and other professionals to offer:

• oversight and management of the Personal Educational Plan (PEP) process
• advice on PEP targets and suitable interventions
• scrutiny of Premium Plus Grant which is awarded to schools to support their cohort of cared for children
• a wide range of advice and training for designated teachers and other school staff relating to education and emotional health and wellbeing of cared for children, for example attachment
• fast referral routes to our commissioned educational psychologists and speech and language therapist
• casework, with VST teacher advisors advocating for individual children and their education
• support and challenge to headteachers and designated teachers to ensure compliance with their statutory responsibilities
• support to social workers by providing consultation, advice and training around admissions, exclusions, progress and attainment, the PEP process and targets and good practice around a school’s use of the Pupil Premium Plus Grant.
• support to social workers to navigate sometimes complex educational issues, including cross-authority protocols, including liaison with other virtual schools

How can you contact the Virtual School team?

Please email virtualschoolteam@salford.gov.uk.

This page was last updated on 3 June 2025