Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance

1. Purpose

Many of our learners arrive believing that school, and the routes that follow it, are not for them. A young person who can see a job, course or apprenticeship they want has a reason to come in, sit a Functional Skills paper and manage a hard day.

This policy sets out our careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG), built on the eight Gatsby Benchmarks and adapted to a short, part-time placement. It supports two outcome measures: every Year 11 leaver has a post-16 plan, and 80% of post-16 leavers are in education, employment or training 18 months after leaving.

2. Scope

This policy applies to every learner in Key Stages 3 and 4, whoever commissions the place, and to all staff, partners and employers who contribute to careers learning.

Care Cove is not a school. Each learner's school, or for a permanently excluded learner the commissioning local authority, keeps its statutory careers duties. We add to the school's programme on our days, keep the school informed, and make sure nothing falls between the two settings.

3. Law and guidance

• Careers guidance and access for education and training providers (DfE statutory guidance, updated May 2025). It adopts the updated Gatsby Benchmarks, which schools, colleges and training providers were expected to implement from September 2025. It is statutory for schools only; we follow it as good practice.

• The eight Gatsby Benchmarks: a stable careers programme; learning from career and labour market information; addressing the needs of each young person; linking curriculum learning to careers; encounters with employers and employees; experiences of workplaces; encounters with further and higher education; personal guidance.

• Provider access legislation (Education Act 1997, section 42B, as amended by the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022). Schools must let providers of technical education and apprenticeships talk to their pupils. This is the school's duty, which we support.

• Participation to 18 (Education and Skills Act 2008). Young people must stay in education or training until 18: full-time education, an apprenticeship, or part-time education or training alongside 20 hours or more a week of work or volunteering. Every post-16 plan must meet this.

• SEND Code of Practice 0 to 25 (2015). EHCP reviews from Year 9 onwards must focus on preparing for adulthood, including employment.

• Commissioning local authority requirements. Careers education is a required part of the personal development curriculum, and Year 11 learners unlikely to return to school must be supported into post-16 learning, with provider visits and a planned handover.

• Work experience: Education Act 1996, section 560, through the Work Experience and Vocational Placements policy.

4. Roles and responsibilities

5. Working with each learner's school

At the start of each placement, the Head of AP asks the school for its careers leader's name, the learner's careers record so far, and the dates of provider encounters, careers events, option choices and college application deadlines. The agreement is recorded on Connect alongside the RSHE and exam entry agreements. Where a school careers event falls on a Care Cove day, the Head of AP agrees with the school whether the learner attends it, joins online or has an equivalent encounter with us. Careers activity is shared with the school each half term through the Partner portal.

6. Careers learning in the curriculum

Careers learning runs through the Future thread of RESET and theme 6 (Future), ending in Pitch Day: mock interviews or a business pitch to local employers. Every learner has at least one careers target in their Mini-PATHs plan, drawn from their own picture of their future.

6.1 Key Stage 3

• Strengths, interests and values, linked to the learner's Skills Builder profile.

• The range of jobs in Sheffield, and challenging stereotypes about who does which job.

• What employers look for, and how attendance, behaviour and digital footprint affect future chances.

• Money basics: wages, payslips, budgeting and scams.

• In Year 9, support with option choices, agreed with the school.

6.2 Key Stage 4

• Every post-16 route, explained impartially: sixth form, college courses including T Levels and vocational qualifications, apprenticeships, supported internships for learners with an EHCP, and employment with training.

• Labour market information for Sheffield and South Yorkshire: growing sectors, typical wages and entry routes.

• CVs, applications and interviews, practised in mock interviews and at Pitch Day.

• The qualifications each route needs, linked to Functional Skills and GCSE entries.

• Financial support after 16, such as the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund, and travel to college or work.

• Rights and safety at work, including recognising exploitation.

6.3 Skills Builder

The eight Skills Builder essential skills are baselined within 2 weeks of starting and re-measured every term. Next steps sit in the plan and show in the Student app. Staff name the skills in sessions and link them to work, so learners can describe them in a CV or interview.

7. How we meet the Gatsby Benchmarks

8. Employers, partners and vocational tasters

8.1 Our partner panel

Our employer and community partner panel will cover all six vocational sectors by the end of the first term (18 December 2026): construction and trades, hospitality and catering, barbering and beauty, motor vehicle, sport and coaching, and digital and media. It includes local tradespeople, salons and beauticians, garages, hospitality businesses, theatres and arts organisations, and Dreams Are Real CIC with Dream Chasers Basketball Club. Partners who work with learners are checked under the Work Experience and Vocational Placements policy, and speakers follow the external speaker checks in the Prevent and Counter-Extremism policy.

8.2 Vocational tasters

Tasters run in the Move slot, with partners. They are open to every learner, including Key Stage 3, and Care Cove staff lead and supervise each one. Where it suits the learner, they lead to short accreditations: Level 1 Health and Safety in a Construction Environment towards the CSCS labourer card, Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene, emergency first aid and sports leadership.

8.3 Impartiality

Advice must serve the learner, not Care Cove or its partners, and staff present every route fairly. The Director is also a director of Dreams Are Real CIC, so CIC and Dream Chasers opportunities are always offered alongside others, never as the only option, and are recorded under the Conflicts of Interest policy.

9. Work experience

Work experience is for learners in Years 10 and 11, or older, agreed in writing with the school or commissioning local authority, and runs entirely under the Work Experience and Vocational Placements policy. No placement goes ahead until we have visited the employer, signed a placement agreement and risk assessment, checked the supervisor, verified employer's liability insurance and prepared the learner. Care Cove staff supervise under-16s throughout, and a parent consents in writing to each placement. Placements happen on the learner's Care Cove days and never add to them.

10. Encounters with further and higher education

• Every Key Stage 4 learner visits at least one post-16 provider while with us. Every Year 11 learner unlikely to return to school visits each provider on their shortlist before applying, with their key mentor.

• We help learners and families attend open events and taster days.

• Where it suits the learner, we arrange a university visit or a talk from a current student.

• The DSL checks each provider's location against the learner's contextual risk map, and travel training covers the new route before they start.

11. Personal guidance

• Every Key Stage 4 learner has access to guidance from a careers adviser qualified to Level 6 and independent of Care Cove. For on-roll learners, the Head of AP arranges it through the school. For permanently excluded learners, or where the school cannot provide it in time, the Head of AP arranges it through the commissioning local authority's careers service.

• For Year 11 learners, we ask for the meeting within 4 weeks of the placement starting, so it shapes the post-16 plan. If it has not happened within half a term, the Head of AP escalates to the school or local authority.

• The key mentor prepares the learner beforehand, can attend if the learner wants, and goes through the action plan afterwards. With consent, the action plan is recorded on Connect and shared with the family and school.

• Careers conversations with key mentors do not replace guidance from a qualified, independent adviser.

12. Involving parents and carers

We invite parents and carers to Pitch Day, post-16 planning meetings, provider visits and open events, and share information on routes, deadlines and financial support through the Family portal and at meetings, with interpreters where needed.

13. A post-16 plan for every Year 11 learner

Every Year 11 learner leaves with a written post-16 plan. Where a learner is unlikely to return to school, we lead it; otherwise we contribute to the school's plan. The key mentor builds it with the learner and family, and the Head of AP signs it off before the learner leaves. It covers:

• the chosen destination and a back-up, with start date and entry requirements;

• applications, interviews and offers;

• qualifications being worked towards, and exam dates;

• travel to the destination, with travel training where needed;

• with consent, the information the destination needs, including SEND information and strategies that work;

• for learners with an EHCP, the post-16 transfer review, which the local authority must complete by 31 March of the year the learner moves on;

• financial support, and who to contact if things go wrong;

• consent and contact details for follow-up.

The key mentor arranges a handover with the destination before the learner leaves. If a learner has no confirmed place by the end of the summer term, we tell the commissioning local authority and, with consent, its support service for young people not in education, employment or training.

14. Reintegration and careers continuity

Most learners return to school. The strategy guidance and discharge summary for the receiving school include the learner's careers targets, interests, Skills Builder profile, encounters, tasters, work experience, accreditations and any guidance action plan. During the 6 weeks of outreach after reintegration, the key mentor checks that the school's careers leader has this record and that agreed next steps are booked.

15. Destinations and follow-up at 18 months

• Every leaver's destination is recorded on Connect at exit.

• In the first half term after a Year 11 learner leaves, the key mentor checks they have started. If not, we offer help and, with consent, tell the local authority.

• For post-16 leavers, the key mentor or Administrator contacts the young person, or with consent their provider or employer, 18 months after leaving to record whether they are in education, employment or training. We try by phone, text and letter over at least a month before recording a destination as unknown.

• Destinations feed the termly KPI report against the 80% outcome measure in section 1. Follow-ups due after a commissioning contract ends are covered in the end-of-contract data plan (Data Protection, Retention and Information Sharing policy).

16. Records on Care Cove Connect

Each learner's careers record holds their careers targets and progress, Skills Builder steps, every encounter (date, partner and the learner's reflection), tasters, work experience, accreditations, guidance action plans, the post-16 plan, the destination at exit and the follow-ups. Learners see their aspirations and steps in the Student app, families in the Family portal and schools in the Partner portal.

17. Monitoring and review

• The Head of AP self-assesses the programme against each Gatsby Benchmark at the end of the first term and then every year, sets actions, and reports to the Director and the SWMC.

• Each term, the Head of AP reports encounters, tasters, placements, guidance meetings, post-16 plans and destinations, broken down by SEND, ethnicity, sex and disadvantage.

• Learner and parent surveys include careers questions, and employers give feedback after tasters and placements.

• This policy is ratified by the SWMC and reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident, a change in law or statutory guidance, or a contract change. It is available to the commissioning local authority at any time.

18. Related policies

• 05 Prevent and Counter-Extremism
• 12 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
• 13 Curriculum, Teaching and Assessment
• 17 Data Protection, Retention and Information Sharing
• 18 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• 26 Off-site Learning and Educational Visits
• 27 Work Experience and Vocational Placements
• 30 Referrals, Admissions and Ending Placements
• 31 Conflicts of Interest
• 36 Accessibility Plan

Document control and ratification

This policy is signed off by the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the Head of Alternative Provision, and ratified by the Social Work Management Committee. It is reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident or a change in law, statutory guidance or contract requirements, and it is available to any commissioning local authority on request.