Case Study: London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Virtual School

How Foresight is supporting the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) Virtual School to track Ever CIN and vulnerable pupils, supporting improved collaboration across the local authority.

We spoke to Adela Kay, who oversees Children in Need (CIN) and Children in Child Protection Plan (CP) as part of the LBBD Virtual School team, to learn more about her innovative approach to tracking and monitoring vulnerable pupils in her local authority.  

Additionally, Adela has been championing the need for Ever CIN pupils to be monitored by schools to ensure they receive the ongoing support they need, and in doing so has strengthened collaboration between education and social care teams in LBBD. 

What is Ever CIN?

Ever CIN is a term used to describe children who have been in need at any point in the last six reporting years. A child is considered “in need” if they have been assessed by a social worker and found to need help and protection. This could be due to risks to their development or health, such as: Neglect, Domestic abuse in the family, and Disability.  The measure is reported on a six-year period even as more years of data become available so that it can be compared over years. 

“I think from an education point of view [tracking only current CIN or CP pupils] is really flawed and I think it doesn’t give the longitudinal care that our young people need when they’ve had a period of chaos.” Adela Kay 

The challenges facing CIN and Ever CIN pupils can be seen in the DfE’s 2024 report ‘Outcomes for children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England: 2023’
 

Partnership with Pupil Pathways

Building on LBBD’s existing partnership with Pupil Pathways, we have worked closely with Adela to bring the immense amount of data she’s gathered and the functionality she needs into our attendance and inclusion platform Foresight. 

In doing so, we have created a centralised platform with an up-to-date record of information which schools need to have access to in order to effectively track their vulnerable pupils and which they currently don’t have access to via their MIS.    

Read the full case study here to learn more about the impact of our collaboration with LBBD Virtual School:

Case Study: Pupil Pathways and LBBD Virtual School (PDF)