Education, training and employment with our care leavers local offer
Virtual School
The Virtual School Team is a small multi-disciplinary team working to raise the educational attainment and attendance of children and young people. It works in close collaboration with colleagues across the authority, and also in partnership with the third sector. It tracks educational progress, while supporting and monitoring work with children and young people in care. It works to help young people achieve their full potential and offers support and advice to those who care and work with them.
Find out more about the Virtual School.
Youth support
The Youth Support Team is defined as: "A team of experienced career professionals with diverse and complementary skills, committed to improving the outcomes of young people who are looked after or who have left care by empowering and enabling them to overcome barriers to education, employment and training."
The Youth Support Service (YSS) manages the delivery of a ‘Youth Offer’ in Central Bedfordshire. As part of this offer, the YSS directly provides intervention and support for young people aged 13 to 19 years (up to 25 in some circumstances).
This intervention and support aims to:
- engage and support young people into education, employment and training who are isolated through their experience of internal and external barriers to personal, social and economic progression
- identify and track the progress of young people to ensure active participation in education, employment and training
- promote the ‘Youth Voice’ to raise the profile, representation and support of all young people across Central Bedfordshire
- engage the most disadvantaged young people in a range of informal learning opportunities through targeted youth work provision
- work in close partnership with schools and providers to ensure they are actively engaged in the consideration of career pathways for young people