Guidance

Memorandum of understanding between the Department for Education and local authority

Updated 2 September 2025

Applies to England

1. Purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding

1.1. This Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is entered into between the Department for Education (DfE) and local authority.

1.2. The MoU provides a framework for how the local authority is expected to share information with DfE as they deliver an extension to the role of the virtual school head to promote the educational outcomes of the cohort of children with a social worker and children in kinship care, from September 2025.

1.3. The MoU is not legally binding.

1.4. This MoU should be read in conjunction with the grant determination letter issued to the local authority and the non-statutory guidance promoting the education of children with a social worker and children in kinship care and statutory guidance working together to improve school attendance, published by DfE. The grant determination letter sets out the local authority funding allocation and expectations on how the funding should be spent. The non-statutory guidance describes the objectives of the virtual school head role extension and the activities that they should undertake.

2. Background on virtual school head extension to children with a social worker and children in kinship care

2.1. DfE’s children in need review concluded in 2019 and highlighted for the first time that 1.6 million children had needed a social worker in the previous 6 years, the equivalent to 1 in 10 children or an average 3 children in every classroom. The children in need review recommended that the virtual school head, as a strategic leader, could help bring together local authorities and education settings to improve the educational outcomes of children with a social worker. Virtual school heads, who have statutory responsibilities for looked-after and previously looked-after children, are well positioned to enhance partnerships between agencies and raise aspiration for this cohort of children.

2.2. The children in need review found that children with a social worker do worse than their peers at every stage of their education and poor outcomes persist, even after social worker involvement ends. Experiences of adversity and trauma can create barriers to education that affect:

• attendance
• learning
• behaviour
• wellbeing

However, with the right support in place, children can overcome these barriers to reach their potential.

2.3. Children who grow up in kinship care have better outcomes than children who grow up in other types of non-parental care. However, their outcomes fall behind those children with no social worker involvement. Championing kinship care, the national kinship strategy (2023) announced a £3.8 million investment for extending the role of virtual school heads to specifically include children in kinship care.

3. Objectives and activities for children with a social worker and kinship care

3.1. Since 2021, local authorities have received funding to resource the virtual school head to work with early years settings, schools, colleges and social care leaders to create a culture of high aspirations that helps all children with social workers to make educational progress. Funding will continue for financial year 2025 to 2026.

3.2. The extended virtual school head role will:

• make visible the disadvantages that both children with a social worker and those in kinship arrangements can experience, enhancing partnerships between education settings and local authorities to help all agencies hold high aspirations for these children
• promote practice that supports children’s engagement in education, recognising that attending an education setting can be an important factor in helping to keep children safe from harm
• level up children’s outcomes and narrow the attainment gap so every child can reach their potential

3.3. Key activities that will be critical to the success of the virtual school head role include:

• strengthening collaboration between education settings and officers within the local authority to enable more effective multi-agency working
• identifying and addressing the needs of children with a social worker, including those in kinship care, by tackling barriers to educational success through strategic leadership, this includes driving improvements in school attendance by holding education providers to account in a robust and constructive manner
• the virtual school heads supporting local authorities in setting and reporting on ambitious and cohort-level targets, as outlined in working together to improve school attendance, this work should be grounded in the understanding that virtual school heads provide strategic leadership for the educational outcomes of this cohort and are not expected to work directly with individual children or track and monitor individual progress
• providing advice and support to key professionals to promote educational progress, including building their confidence to use evidence-based interventions

4. Advice and guidance arrangements for children in kinship arrangements

4.1. Since September 2024, local authorities have also received funding to resource the virtual school head to work with early years settings, schools, colleges, and social care leaders to champion the attendance, attainment and progress of all children in kinship care.

4.2. The extended virtual school head role includes the provision of advice and information, on request, to all kinship carers with special guardianship orders and child arrangements orders, regardless of whether their child was previously looked after by the local authority.

4.3. The provision of information and advice for kinship carers with a special guardianship order or child arrangements order may include:

• providing advice and information to frequently asked questions online
• providing advice to individual kinship carers and schools where they have a query and permission has been given
• advising schools on how they can support all children subject to special guardianship orders and child arrangement orders to improve behaviour to help avoid exclusion becoming necessary

5. Department for Education funding

5.1. DfE has made a total of £20.45 million available to local authorities to extend the role of the virtual school head to 31 March 2026. All local authorities, with the exception of the Isles of Scilly and City of London, will receive a baseline of funding. For children with a social worker, areas with the highest numbers of education settings receive further ‘top up’ funding.

5.2. For children in kinship arrangements, top-up funding is calculated through average numbers of previously looked after children who were the subject of a special guardianship order and child arrangements order in the local authority. Full details of specific funding amounts are found in the grant determination letter.

5.3. The deadline for local authorities to sign and return this MoU to DfE is 26 September 2025.

6. Payment Details

6.1. The local authority will receive funding through Section 31 of the Education Act 2002. Payments for financial year 2025 to 2026 will be made in 3 equal tranches in:

• September 2025
• December 2025
• March 2026

6.2. It is expected that funding will be utilised for purposes outlined in the programme aims and objectives.

7. Reporting

7.1. DfE and the programme’s independent research partner may ask the local authority to share information about how their virtual school head has been supporting children with a social worker and children in kinship care including what funding has been used for. This research will help develop a strong evidence base for how virtual school heads can effectively promote the educational outcomes of children with social workers and children in kinship care arrangements. It is expected that local authorities take part in grant monitoring activity.

7.2. In addition, the local authority may be asked to take part in focussed interviews to understand what helps virtual school heads to be effective in supporting children with a social worker and children in kinship care. These interviews will involve virtual school heads, their teams and partner agencies. Local authorities may utilise reasonable funding provided to extend the role of the virtual school head for this activity. These interviews will offer more detailed insights and help ensure virtual school heads can learn from each other and DfE can support the sharing of best practice.

7.3. The grant should be used to support local authorities to take an ambitious and proactive role, through the virtual school, in monitoring and improving attendance for children with a social worker, ensuring all children have the opportunity to succeed. This includes setting aspirational attendance targets for the cohort and reporting on progress with clear and actionable steps towards these targets. DfE will require confirmation that targets have been agreed through the MoU and may request updates throughout the year.

8. Financial Management

8.1. The local authority must maintain a sound system of internal financial controls. If the authority has any grounds for suspecting financial irregularity in the use of any grant paid under this funding agreement, it must notify DfE immediately, explain what steps are being taken to investigate the suspicion and keep the department informed about the progress of the investigation. For these purposes “financial irregularity” includes fraud or other impropriety, mismanagement, and the use of grant for purposes other than those for which it was provided.

8.2. Furthermore, the local authority will be expected to provide an annual financial progress report on total receipt, expenditure of funding, and planned expenditure within the grant period. The form to be completed will be recirculated to local authorities on 3 November 2025 with instructions for completion and return. The financial progress report should be completed by the lead officer in the local authority for the programme duties, signed and submitted by 5 December 2025 to VSH.CIN@education.gov.uk. This process enables the department to meet its grant assurance obligations. Where funding is not spent for the purpose for which it was intended as set out in the grant determination letter, and in accordance with the memorandum of understanding and non-statutory guidance, the department may withhold future funding payments.

9. Records to be kept

9.1. The authority must maintain reliable, accessible and up to date accounting records with an adequate audit trail for all expenditure funded by grant monies under this determination.

9.2. The authority and any person acting on behalf of the authority must allow the Comptroller and Auditor General or appointed representatives and the Secretary of State or appointed representatives free access at all reasonable times to all documents (including computerised documents and data) and other information as are connected to the grant payable under this determination, or to the purposes for which grant was used, subject to the provisions in paragraph 3.

9.3. The documents, data and information referred to in paragraph 8.1 are such which the Secretary of State or the Comptroller and Auditor General may reasonably require for the purposes of his financial audit or any department or other public body or for carrying out examinations into the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which any department or other public body has used its resources. The authority must provide such further explanations as are reasonably required for these purposes.

10. Duration of the MoU

10.1. This MoU is in place until 31 March 2026 for the purposes of activity and 15 April 2026 for reporting.

11. Confidentiality

11.1. Each party shall treat the other’s confidential information as confidential and safeguard it accordingly and shall not disclose it to any other person without consent.

12. Resolution of disputes

12.1. If a dispute should arise in connection to this MoU or matters relating to it, the named policy contacts will together endeavour to resolve the issue. If they are unable to resolve the issue within a reasonable time, it will be referred by them for negotiation by senior officers in both organisations, who will intervene and direct a resolution.

13. Policy contacts

13.1. DfE can be contacted at VSH.CIN@education.gov.uk and an official will reply to all correspondence.