EDClass for Local Authorities

EDClass: a DfE-accredited Partner for Local Authorities

EDClass stands as a robust partner for Local Authorities in fulfilling their statutory educational duties under the legislative frameworks like Section 19 of the Education Act 1996; the principles potentially emerging from concepts like a Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill; and statutory guidance like Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2024, ensuring all children of compulsory school age receive a suitable education.

By providing extra teaching, learning, SEND, SENCO, and safeguarding capacity, along with a clear, personalised approach, EDClass helps Local Authorities overcome barriers frequently encountered by vulnerable student groups within traditional school environments.

Addressing Legislative Frameworks and Section 19 Duties

The legislative frameworks, particularly the requirement for Local Authorities to fulfil Section 19 duties concerning the education of children unable to attend school due to illness or other reasons, underscore the critical need for high-quality alternative provisions.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill further emphasises the holistic needs of the child, and Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024 places paramount importance on safeguarding.

EDClass directly addresses these frameworks by offering a structured, safe, and engaging online learning environment that can be rapidly deployed to meet the needs of students who cannot access traditional schooling.

This ensures Local Authorities can readily meet their Section 19 duties with a provision that prioritises both educational progress and safeguarding.

Comprehensive Support for Local Authoritities

EDClass offers holistic support to Local Authorities by providing an integrated solution that addresses multiple facets of their statutory responsibilities and operational needs concerning children’s education, particularly for those unable to attend mainstream school.

Through meeting the diverse educational needs for an extensive range of students, EDClass provides access to a broad curriculum delivered by UK-qualified teachers. Crucially, this is not a one-size-fits-all approach.

Learning pathways can be personalised based on age, ability, aptitude, and specific learning gaps, ensuring the education provided is “suitable” as required by law and the Section 19 duties.

EDClass directly helps Local Authorities address key duties through:

Section 19: Provides immediate, suitable education for excluded pupils or those out of school for illness or other reasons.
Boosting LA Capacity: It instantly provides extra capacity in teaching, curriculum delivery, SEND support, and safeguarding supervision for a range of students.
Excluded Pupils: Meets the requirement to provide full-time education from the sixth day.
CME: Offers a tool to quickly re-engage Children Missing Education once identified.
Reporting: Generates data on attendance online, engagement, and progress, aiding LA oversight and accountability.

Holistic Support and a Coordinated Approach

EDClass provides holistic support by integrating tailored education, specialist SEND input, rigorous safeguarding, operational efficiency, and collaborative tools into a single platform.

This allows Local Authorities to address the complex educational, wellbeing, and statutory needs of vulnerable children in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.

Based on the available information, EDClass offers holistic support for Local Authorities by providing an integrated solution that addresses multiple facets of a Local Authorities responsibilities towards children who cannot attend mainstream school.

This holistic approach encompasses:

Educational Continuity and Personalisation

EDClass delivers suitable, curriculum-aligned education (KS1-KS4, including core subjects and functional skills) via personalised learning pathways.

This ensures Local Authorities can meet their Section 19 duty to provide education tailored to individual student needs, including those with EHC plans or specific learning gaps identified through diagnostic assessments.

Qualified teachers provide live support and targeted interventions.

Integrated Safeguarding and Wellbeing

Safeguarding is a top priority and core strength. EDClass provides a secure, monitored online environment with features like check-ins, alert buttons, and activity tracking.

We employ experienced Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) and ensure all staff receive comprehensive safeguarding training (including online safety, mental health awareness, counter-terrorism awareness - ACT, etc.), adhering to KCSIE guidelines.

This addresses the Local Authorities duty of care and focus on student safety and mental wellbeing.

Specialist SEND Support

The platform includes access to SEND specialists and SENCOs. This allows for the creation and implementation of learning strategies that directly address the requirements of EHC plans and cater to diverse needs (e.g., ADHD, Autism, anxiety), augmenting the Local Authorities own specialist services.

Statutory Compliance Assistance

EDClass directly supports Local Authorities in fulfilling legal duties, such as providing education from the 6th day of permanent exclusion, educating children unable to attend due to illness, supporting Looked-after Children (working with Virtual Schools), and re-engaging Children Missing Education (CME). The DfE accreditation provides quality assurance.

Capacity Building and Efficiency

EDClass offers Local Authorities immediate access to qualified teachers, SEND expertise, and safeguarding infrastructure, alleviating pressure on Local Authorities resources and budgets.

It provides a scalable solution that can be deployed quickly for individual cases or larger groups, often proving more cost-effective than arranging physical placements or individual tutors.

Facilitating Collaboration

EDClass promotes partnership between the Local Authorities, the student's registered school (if applicable), parents/carers, social workers, and other agencies.

Regular progress reports and communication channels help ensure a coordinated approach to the child's education and welfare.

Addressing Barriers and Promoting Engagement

The platform is designed to re-engage students facing barriers like anxiety, school phobia, medical needs, or behavioural challenges. The flexible, supportive online environment aims to reduce stress, build confidence, and foster positive attitudes towards learning, with reintegration into mainstream school often being a key goal.

EDClass provides holistic support with robust safeguarding that a local authority needs with a unique and personalised teaching and SEND approach.

Our aim is to raise operational efficiency, enabling Local Authorities to meet their complex statutory duties and support the overall wellbeing and progress of vulnerable learners.

Collaborative Partnership for Unlimited Personalised Learning and Facilitating Multi-agency Collaboration

EDClass is designed to work collaboratively with Local Authorities, offering a scalable solution that allows for unlimited students to access personalised learning structures tailored to their individual learning, SEND, CAMHS, and EHCP needs.

The platform acts as a central hub. It enables smoother communication and information sharing between the Local Authority (including virtual schools for children in care), social workers, foster carers, parents/guardians, CAMHS (where relevant), and the student.

This coordinated approach is vital for supporting children with complex needs.

Here’s how EDClass specifically supports and collaborates with Local Authorities to provide tailored support for various cohorts and student groups under their responsibility:

Children Not Registered at a School and Not Receiving Suitable Education Otherwise

EDClass provides a comprehensive online learning platform with a wide range of subjects and resources, allowing Local Authorities to offer immediate educational provision for these children. Our SEND team, qualified teachers, and robust safeguarding measures offer essential tools for supervision, support, and ensuring a suitable education.

The platform's tracking and reporting features enable Local Authorities to monitor engagement and progress, addressing concerns about the suitability of education and providing evidence for attendance orders if necessary.

The SEND, teaching, safeguarding, supervision, and support elements form an essential toolkit for the Local Authority.

Children Who Are Permanently Excluded from School

EDClass provides a DfE-accredited online Alternative Provision that ensures continuity of education for permanently excluded students from the sixth day.

Our structured online curriculum, coupled with supervision and support from qualified teachers, helps maintain academic progress and address behavioural needs. The online environment can also offer a less triggering and more focused learning space for these students.

Children Unable to Attend School Due to Illness

EDClass offers unparalleled flexibility, allowing students to access learning from anywhere, at any time, adapting to their health needs. This ensures a clear continuity of service, working closely with Local Authority stakeholders, multi-agency teams, parents, and the learner.

The platform offers extreme flexibility. Students can learn when they feel well enough, accessing recorded content or scheduled support sessions. It ensures continuity of education, preventing students from falling significantly behind.

EDClass facilitates collaboration between the Local Authority, healthcare professionals (e.g., CAMHS), parents, and the student, providing a structured yet adaptable learning setting tailored precisely to the child's health, SEND, CAMHS, and EHCP needs.

Children in Alternative Provision

EDClass serves as a versatile tool within a Local Authority's broader Alternative Provision strategy. It can provide a structured online curriculum, targeted interventions, and access to specialist support, complementing other forms of Alternative Provision.

The platform’s diverse range of resources and teaching approaches allows Local Authorities to tailor provision to the specific needs of students in Alternative Provision, whether due to exclusion, illness, or other reasons.

EDClass can serve as the sole provider or supplement other forms of Alternative Provision. Its range includes full curriculum delivery, targeted intervention, bridging provision (e.g., while awaiting specialist placement), or reintegration support back into mainstream school.

Children in Care (Looked-after Children)

The safeguarding and teaching aspects of EDClass, highlighted in our Ofsted reports, demonstrate our strength in supporting looked-after children. We work closely with parents, case workers, and learners to provide a robust yet flexible educational approach that prioritises their individual needs and promotes their educational attainment.

The online environment can offer stability and consistency, which is crucial for this vulnerable group. EDClass provides educational stability even if placements change. It fosters collaboration with the Local Authority's virtual school team, social workers, foster carers, and the child, creating a robust yet flexible support network focused on the child's educational progress and wellbeing, directly supporting the Local Authority's duty.

Children Missing Education (CME)

Once a CME child is identified, EDClass offers a rapid way to provide immediate, trackable, and supervised education. Its secure platform and supportive staff can help re-engage learners who have become detached from the education system.

Our engaging content and flexible access can act as a powerful tool for re-engaging children who are not receiving a suitable education. The platform's ability to cater to diverse learning needs and provide a supportive online environment can help overcome barriers to learning and encourage these students to re-enter education.

Our competitive and flexible rates ensure that budget constraints do not hinder the Local Authorities ability to provide appropriate education for all CME.

Children Outside of Their Location

Being online, EDClass removes geographical barriers and ensures consistent, high-quality education provision aligned with the child's needs, regardless of where they are physically located, fulfilling their statutory responsibility seamlessly. Also, for children placed outside the Local Authority area please note that EDClass offers flexibility for students whose health prevents regular attendance patterns.

Children in Foster Care

EDClass promote educational attainment and stability. As with Looked-After Children, EDClass provides stability, robust safeguarding, and facilitates crucial collaboration between the foster carers, social workers, virtual school, and the child, supporting the Local Authorities corporate parenting role.

Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Not in Mainstream Schools

Rather than Local Authorities needing to source separate specialist support, EDClass incorporates a dedicated SEND team and SENCOs, allowing instant access to a SEND team that understands diverse learning needs. Our personalised approach caters to students with ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, and other specific learning differences through differentiated resources, adaptive learning pathways, and tools to support individual learning styles.

Our SEND team collaborates with the Local Authority to understand EHC Plans and individual student needs (like ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia), tailoring the platform's resources and teaching strategies accordingly. This integrates specialist support directly into the educational provision. It also aids Local Authorities in fulfilling their responsibility for these students by providing a flexible and supportive learning environment that complements or acts as an alternative to specialist settings.

Our UK-qualified teachers adapt delivery for all for all SEND students. This provides a tailored environment often more adaptable and immediately available than securing a specialist school place, potentially offering a cost-effective solution for the Local Authority while meeting the child's specific educational requirements.

EDClass Provides Extra Capacity and a Clear Approach for Local Authorities

EDClass offers Local Authorities significant extra capacity and a structured approach in several key areas.

Teaching Capacity

EDClass provides immediate access to UK-qualified teachers across various subjects, reducing the Local Authority's burden of directly employing or sourcing specialist staff for individual or small groups of students needing Alternative Provision.

Learning Resources

Engage with a vast library of curriculum-mapped lessons, assessments, and resources, ensuring educational continuity and suitability across different key stages and abilities.

SEND Expertise

The platform includes an integrated SEND team and SENCOs who can assess needs, help develop personalised learning plans aligned with EHC Plans, and provide targeted support strategies, augmenting the Local Authority's own SEND services.

Flexibility and Scalability

EDClass can be deployed rapidly for individual students or scaled up to support larger cohorts as needed, offering Local Authorities flexibility in managing fluctuating demands for Alternative Provision.

Safeguarding Infrastructure

EDClass offers a monitored and recorded online environment. Features like alerts for keywords, tracking of engagement, welfare checks, and communication logs provide a clear safeguarding framework, helping Local Authorities meet KCSIE requirements for oversight of Alternative Provision. Dedicated safeguarding staff within EDClass provide an additional layer of protection and reporting.

Structured Approach

Provides a clear platform for delivering, monitoring, and reporting on education for children outside mainstream school. This helps Local Authorities demonstrate they are fulfilling their Section 19 duties with a traceable and quality-assured provision. Data on attendance, engagement, progress, and safeguarding concerns is readily available.

Overcoming Barriers Encountered in Traditional Schools

Flexible Timetabling

Learning can often be scheduled around health appointments, therapy sessions (CAMHS), or peak/low energy levels associated with medical conditions or neurodiversity (ADHD, chronic illness).

Targeted Support

One-to-one support from teachers and mentors can address specific learning gaps or EHC plan targets more directly than might be possible in a large classroom.

Safety and Reduced Conflict

Eliminates triggers related to school-based trauma, phobia, or conflict situations that may have led to exclusion or non-attendance.

Reduced Anxiety/Sensory Overload

Learning from a familiar, safe environment (often home) removes social pressures, bullying risks, and sensory challenges present in busy school buildings (beneficial for Autism, anxiety disorders).

Personalised Pacing

Students can work through materials at their own speed, revisiting topics as needed, without the pressure of keeping up with a whole class (beneficial for various learning difficulties, including Dyslexia, and those catching up after absence).

Engagement, Onboarding, Nurture, Supervision, and Teaching

The EDClass platform is designed with a focus on engagement, onboarding, nurture, supervision, and high-quality teaching at the heart of everything.

Recognising that many children are disengaged or face barriers, EDClass employs onboarding processes, mentoring, and interactive tools designed to rebuild confidence and re-engage learners, addressing the pastoral and motivational aspects alongside the academic needs.

EDClass employs various strategies:

Personalised Induction

Understanding the student's background, needs, anxieties, and interests.

Interactive Platform

Using varied content formats (video, quizzes, virtual labs) to maintain interest.

Clear Structure & Expectations

Providing routines and clear goals.

Rewards and Recognition

Positive reinforcement for effort and achievement.

Accessibility Features

Catering to diverse learning needs (e.g., text-to-speech, adjustable layouts).

Regular Communication

Keeping students, parents/carers, and LA caseworkers informed and involved.

Nurturing Approach

Building rapport through dedicated support staff and mentors alongside building the students up through our nurture and resilience curriculum, which prepares them for their core curriculum.

The benefit is higher engagement, reduced educational anxiety, addressing the need for learning and ultimately, better progress and outcomes for vulnerable students.

Our dedicated onboarding team ensures a smooth transition for all learners, regardless of their background or prior educational experiences. The platform’s interactive lessons, diverse resources, and personalised learning pathways nurture a love of learning and cater to individual needs.

Robust supervision features allow Local Authorities and designated staff to monitor student progress and engagement, while our team of qualified teachers provides expert instruction and support.

Addressing the Complex Educational Landscape with EDClass

The current educational landscape involves shared responsibilities (schools, Local Authorities, health services, social care) and EDClass offers a comprehensive and adaptable solution that empowers Local Authorities to effectively address the diverse educational needs of all children under their responsibility.

Our platform provides the extra capacity and clear approach required to meet the demands of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024, ensuring that even the most vulnerable students receive a suitable, safe, and engaging education, and addressees key points in the Section 19, SEND and AP improvement Plan and KCSIE (2024).

EDClass’s combination of engagement strategies, personalised onboarding, nurturing support, robust supervision (safeguarding), and qualified teaching allows Local Authorities’ stakeholders to address a multitude of complex student needs and fulfil their statutory duties efficiently through a single, adaptable, and quality-assured platform.

It provides the necessary capacity, flexibility, and specialised support required to ensure vulnerable children receive the suitable education they are entitled to. This ability to personalise learning for unlimited students, coupled with robust safeguarding and dedicated support teams, makes EDClass an invaluable partner for Local Authorities.

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