Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether virtual schools for children in care can apply for her Department's summer school funding.

The pupil premium: summer schools programme is open to the following type of schools:

• Maintained schools including special schools;
• Academies including special schools;
• Free schools including special schools;
• Non-maintained special schools; and
• Independent special schools.

Virtual schools, which are a way of local authorities tracking the educational progress of the children they look after as if they attended a single school, are not eligible to apply for summer school funding.

Looked-after children can benefit from summer school funding through the school they will attend in Year 7. The exact make-up of the summer school is decided by individual headteachers. They can, for example, tailor aspects of their summer school programme to meet the specific needs of their looked-after children.

The purpose of the summer schools programme is to support disadvantaged pupils through the potentially difficult institutional transition to secondary school; this specific transitional issue does not arise in a virtual school. Support at this crucial stage is best provided by the school where the pupil is expected to attend in Year 7.