ARC - Chair Update - September 2026

ARC Chair Comments - September 2026

As schools welcome back their children and young people for the new academic year, I trust that the summer was an enjoyable and relaxing break for all.

The summer months have seen a flurry of activity from central government. The latest, 2026 edition of Keeping Children Safe In Education here requires all teachers to have a working knowledge of the content. Law firm Browne Jacobson has created a free resource hub to help schools and colleges prepare for these changes, found here. 

Furthermore, in light of the focus on NEET’s over the past few weeks, Ofsted is conducting research here on effective practice to prevent young people from becoming NEET. This plans to interview staff in schools and colleges with a report being published in early to mid-2027.

ARC was disappointed to see Lord James Timpson step down from his ministerial role at the Ministry of Justice. This role had seen a welcomed increased focus on trauma informed and attachment aware work across the criminal justice system and a revision of the protocols around Safeguarding the criminalisation of care-experienced young people.

I was really pleased to receive an excellent training video for teachers found here that has been developed by Care To Dance in partnership with Leicestershire Virtual School. In the video, a number of Care To Dance Ambassadors share their lived experiences in education and offer honest reflections and practical advice for teachers and other professionals working with care-experienced children and young people. This is an excellent opportunity to hear young peoples voices to help strengthen understanding and encourage more trauma-informed, relationship-based practice across education settings.

ARC are delighted that a number of the benefits have undergone review, refinement and  development over the summer. The ARC Self-Evaluation Form (audit) has been completely revised by the ARC Educational Psychology group. This is now being piloted over this term with the aim to help schools across their relational journey. Any schools who would like to join this pilot please contact admin@the-arc.org.uk . The ARC Matrix has also been revised to align to the new Ofsted framework and this supports across the system at individual, school and community levels. The ARC research document area has been fully reviewed and re-formatted by ARC Ambassadors and the ARC HE & Research group to allow users to search and filter.

I am looking forward to seeing you all at our annual conference in Birmingham in November (featured later in the newsletter). As always, this reflects the feedback and input from our work over the year and continues to focus on ‘what works in the classroom’ as well as learning about complimentary and national developments. The event will ensure that a large number of business partners are also included in the room, as last year, to the benefit of all delegates.

I am delighted to announce that Jamie Rogers has joined our team to lead on the work with Schools and Multi-Academy Trust’s as part of the London VRU partnership.

Jamie has considerable local, regional and national experience. He has recently been the Director of Programmes and Partnerships at The Difference,  leading on national strategy across programmes, delivery, and local authority partnerships helping to shape Inclusive Leadership Course (ILC), Difference School Partnership, and  Internal Alternative Provision

Jamie brings extensive experience as a senior leader and associate headteacher, with a strong track record in school turnaround, particularly in inner-city contexts. His leadership has focused on driving sustainable improvement, strengthening inclusive practice, and supporting schools serving under-resourced communities.

Jamie will work closely with Dee Dee Roberts, the London VRU Lead for ARC for Virtual Schools, Local Authorities and Children Services. Dee has undertaken this role for the initial phase of the partnership programme alongside her Virtual School Assistant Head Teacher position.

The partnership will continue to shape and develop the London Inclusion Charter with the aim of including and supporting all schools.

Finally, as the ARC offer continues to grow and develop we are looking to add to the ARC Board Of Trustees. In particular it would be helpful to extend our expertise across a number of key areas including senior leadership (education/children services), equality & diversity, and business and financial development. Please contact me on Andrew@the-arc.org.uk  if you would like to discuss further.

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