This session explores current research into the role that personal tutors take in supporting care experienced people in secondary schools. It considers how extending this role could better meet the needs of looked after children, offering them more consistency in the school-based support they receive. We consider how personal tutors could provide advocacy for children in multi-agency coordination, with access to specialist training in supporting children in education settings. Neither seen nor heard, looked after children may be receiving tokenistic support, with the potential for even greater challenges in deprived areas. Education perspectives of diminishing pastoral roles within schools are debated, attending to the ways in which looked after children can be left behind. Recommendations in relation to how personal tutoring roles may bolster support for looked after children are set out.

Speaker: Barry Saccone SFHEA

Senior Success Tutor, Chair of the Care Experience Group at Teesside University.