The Rees Centre have been commissioned by the DfE to evaluate two policy programmes related to Virtual Schools’ duties to children and young people experienced of the care system. The first, concerns the extended role of the Virtual School Head to include strategic responsibility in promoting the educational outcomes of the cohort of Children With a Social Worker (CWSW) and those who have previously had a social worker in the last 6 years (Ever 6 CWSW). The second, involves the VSHs’ support of Children Looked-After (CLA) and Care Leavers (CL) in post-16 education and training settings through the extension of Pupil Premium Plus funding. Both projects use a realist, mixed-methods approach which aims to identify what works, for whom, to what extent and under what conditions.

In this Qual Hub seminar, Dr Georgia Hyde-Dryden and Dr Andrew Brown of the Rees Centre will present an overview of the qualitative methodology from both projects and the challenges revealed from conducting multi-disciplinary, government funded research that straddles two overlapping, yet distinct, agencies: education and social care.