How Foresight is Supporting LBBD Virtual School to Track Ever CIN Pupils

The Challenge

In the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD), Adela Kay leads the Virtual School team responsible for pupils who are Children in Need (CIN) or on a Child Protection Plan (CP). But Adela saw a gap: schools weren’t tracking children who had previously been supported by a social worker (known as Ever CIN), even though these pupils often continue to face barriers in education.

Ever CIN refers to children who have been assessed as in need at any point in the past six years, due to factors like neglect, disability, or domestic abuse. Much like Ever 6 FSM pupils (those eligible for free school meals), these children can benefit from ongoing support – but the data just wasn’t there.

School MIS systems often don’t capture historical CIN status, and any data that does exist can get lost when a pupil transitions from one school to another. That meant schools were unaware of pupils’ previous vulnerability, and Virtual Schools like LBBD were left trying to patch the gaps manually.

Adela took on the task of building a borough-wide database using social care records and school data to identify all CIN, CP, and Ever CIN pupils. But it was a complex, time-consuming process, made harder when pupil identifiers changed or children moved schools.

Still, Adela knew it was worth the effort. She wanted these children to be visible, monitored, and supported in the same way as other vulnerable groups.

“Tracking only current CIN or CP pupils is really flawed. It doesn’t give the long-term care our young people need when they’ve had a period of chaos.”

The Solution: Bringing the Data into Foresight

To turn her manual system into something more sustainable, Adela partnered with Pupil Pathways and brought her work into Foresight, their inclusion and attendance platform.

Foresight now hosts a centralised dashboard for the LBBD Virtual School team, giving them a clear overview of vulnerable pupils across the borough. It integrates with school MIS systems and requires only a monthly update from the Virtual School team, drastically reducing manual effort.

The platform flags pupils during transitions, tracks attendance trends, and allows filtering by characteristics like Ever CIN or CP. Importantly, it gives schools access to data they otherwise wouldn’t have – especially historical CIN status.

The Impact

Foresight has transformed how LBBD supports vulnerable pupils. Adela can now spend more time working with schools and social care teams, rather than building databases from scratch.

With accurate attendance and CIN data in one place, the Virtual School can identify concerns early, support transitions more effectively, and start meaningful conversations with schools around safeguarding and inclusion. Social care teams can also use the data to pick up on patterns that may need intervention.

The platform has also enabled stronger collaboration within the local authority. The Attendance Lead can now approach schools with confidence, supported by consistent data from Foresight.

Looking Ahead

Although tracking Ever CIN is not yet a statutory requirement, Adela hopes to influence change by showing what’s possible. One key challenge still to tackle is the tracking of pupils who live in LBBD but attend schools in neighbouring boroughs. These children risk falling through the cracks.

The next step is to explore cross-borough data sharing, so pupils remain visible regardless of where they go to school. Adela and Pupil Pathways are already working together on this vision – ensuring that no vulnerable child is left behind.

“It’s about having information at your fingertips. Even if Ever CIN isn’t in your MIS, it’s now just there – and that makes a huge difference.”