PLAC Status

For a child to qualify for PLAC status, they must have been a child in care for at least one day before moving onto a new order of permanence, adoption, special guardianship order, child arrangement order (previously residency order).

To be satisfied of status, schools should ask to see the court order (or equivalent evidence). This order will state that prior to the order, the child/young person was under the care of ‘named’ local authority. Please consider confidentiality and GDPR responsibilities.

Once a school is satisfied of the child’s PLAC status, it can record them on the school census as such. 

In any situation where legal parental responsibility is ambiguous for a child and/or attempts made via parents/guardians do not satisfy the school, schools should seek further advice/support to ensure there are no safeguarding concerns and there is clarity over who holds legal parental rights and responsibilities for the child.

A school's October census will determine school funding for the next financial year.  Each child recorded as PLAC will currently generate £2,570 in Pupil Premium (2024/25).

Please note that if children return to their birth parents, they are not under a new order of permanence and are not considered PLAC. They may return under a supervision order, child in need plan or under no plan. This return to existing legal parent is not a new order of permanence; it is re-unification. 

A supervision order is not a new order of permanence. It is a legal order which gives the local authority a duty to supervise the parent around the care for the child for a limited period of time. These children will therefore not qualify for PLAC status. They will no longer be a child in care (looked-after child) and will no longer receive LAC pupil premium from the Virtual School.