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The TES has reported that the Chief Inspector and leading children’s charities have accused the Government of short-changing children in care by setting them GCSE targets that do not require them to pass English or maths. Pam Hibbert, assistant policy director of Barnardo’s, told the TES: "This gives the message that somehow children in care are second class citizens and that we don’t have the same aspirations for them." Critics of the targets have called for them to be the same as those for other pupils.
(TES, 26 October 2007)
The TES reported that the first group of virtual headteachers were being appointed by 11 local authorities to work with teachers, social workers and foster parents to improve the education of looked after children. If the initiative is successful the Government plans to roll out the scheme nationwide. Virtual heads will also help to smooth the transition when pupils move homes or schools. In another scheme, Warwickshire, Gateshead, Dudley and Merton are all involved in funding from HSBC to provide private tutors to children in care.
(TES, 24 August 2007)
Children Now reported that foster children were to receive a grant of over £17,000 to help them improve their reading skills. The Fostering Network will use the money from the Roald Dahl Foundation for its Telling My Story project, which aims to encourage foster carers to read with their children.
(Children Now, 4 September 2007)
The BBC has reported on a government pledge to spend more than £300m over the next four years to improve the lives and opportunities of children in care. Plans set out in a White Paper call for "urgent, sustained action" across central and local government in England. Much of the White Paper is focussed on improving the education and overall development of children in care. Plans include making schools give places to children in care, even if they are full, and providing bursaries of a minimum of £2,000 for those who go on to university.
The government will also pilot a scheme in 11 local authorities for children to receive help from a "virtual head teacher", who would check on the progress of all children in care in their area.
There are about 61,000 children in care in England, 69% of whom are fostered. Children in care are more likely than others to become homeless and go to prison. Studies show only 11% of children in care currently get five good GCSEs, compared with 56% in England as a whole. By the age of 19, they are more than twice as likely not to be in education, employment and training, official figures show.
The key proposals in the White Paper include:
- Access to the best schools
- £500 to help pupils catch up
- £2,000 bursary for university
- 'Virtual head teacher' to track progress
- No school moves for children in Years 10 and 11
- 'Councils' formed for children in care
- Exclusion made last absolute last resort
You can read the full article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6221778.stm.
(BBC, 21 June 2007)
The number of schools reported for failing to give priority
to children in care has soared by three quarters this year,
despite the fact it is now illegal. The figures were revealed
in the annual report of the Office of the Schools Adjudicator,
which settles school admission disputes. It says its overall
workload has increased by around 75%, as local authorities
have taken a harder line on schools which bend intake rules.
A total of 245 admission objections were referred to adjudicators
in 2006, as opposed to 140 last year. Of these 59 related
to schools trying to avoid giving places to children in care,
as opposed to 35 in 2005. All but two of the latest objections
were upheld. Regulations were passed this February requiring
all admissions authorities to give priority to children in
care.
(TES, 3 November 2006)
Popular schools, even if they are oversubscribed, will have
to take on looked-after children, under government proposals
in the Care Matters green paper. Schools will also be expected
to provide catch-up support for these children, to make sure
they do not fall behind their classmates. The recommendations
would also give them the right to remain in foster care until
the age of 21, and pay their carers a professional salary.
However, there are fears there is no money to pay for the
proposals.
The document proposes to help teenagers pursue further and
higher education by offering a £2,000 bursary to pay for university,
as well as an extra £100 for every year they are in care.
Under the proposals, looked-after children would be offered
free transport so that they do not have to change school when
they are moved to a new care placement.
Main aims of the green paper:
- A veto for young people over any decisions about moving
from care before they turn 18
- The right to live with foster carers up to the age of
21
- Individual budgets for each child to be held by the social
worker
- An expectation that looked-after children will be placed
in the best, local school, even if it is already oversubscribed
- Guaranteed catch-up support
- A 'virtual headteacher' to look after their welfare
- New qualifications, training and salaries for foster carers
- Free access to leisure centres and youth clubs
- £500 for enrichment activities and £2,000 for university
- Free school transport to avoid the need to change schools
with each new foster placement
- Enhanced support to enable them to stay with birth families.
Facts about care:
- There are 60,000 children in care; 85,000 move through
the system in a year
- 44% of them are aged between 10 and 15
- 13% had three or more placements in 2005/6
- Only 11% achieved five A*-C grades at GCSE, compared with
54% nationally
- Looked-after children are nine times more likely to have
a statement of special needs
- 28% leave care at the age of 16
- Only 6% go on to university.
(TES, 13 October 2006)
Run by Volunteer Reading Help, a national charity which matches
book lovers with reluctant readers in schools, Time for Children
is bringing the stimulus of shared reading into often chaotic
and bookless lives of children in care. It's officially a
success: having finished its pilot three years in the north-west,
funded by the National Literacy Association, it's about to
be rolled out nationally.
The meetings, either at school, in residential children's
homes or in libraries (for legal reasons, volunteers cannot
go into private or foster homes) anchor children. The 63 young
people currently in the north-west programme, which covers
five education authorities, are matched with volunteers from
students to young professionals to the retired. They tend
to be women but do include some men (all volunteers have Criminal
Records Bureau checks). A two-day training is supplemented
with information on child protection procedures.
(TES, 6 October 2006)
This TES article examines how schools are failing
the most vulnerable pupils and innovative thinking is urgently
needed. To read this article in full visit www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2291838
(TES, 29 September 2006)
To read this TES article in full visit www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2291770
(TES, 29 September 2006)
Pressure is mounting for radical action to improve the education
of children in care following a report this week that catalogues
the hurdles that prevent them achieving at school. Instability
at home, lack of support from social services and a failure
to provide education for those excluded from school are all
identified as barriers to achievement in a report published
by the Centre for Policy Studies.
Almost one-third of children have three of more care placements
during secondary school and one child was told just two days
before the start of his GCSEs that he would be expected to
move home in the next three weeks. One education consultant
who taught children excluded from school is quoted in the
report. She said that the children appeared to have no one
looking after them.
The report, Handle with Care,
comes weeks before the Government is expected to publish a
green paper intended to improve the life chances of children
in care. It is the latest evidence of how these children's
education has moved up the political agenda. Handle with Care
by Harriet Sergeant is available www.cps.org.uk
(TES, 22 September 2006)
Children in care are to be given places at state and independent
boarding schools in order to improve their "desperately poor"
academic performance, Lord Adonis, the schools minister, has
said. The pilot scheme will run alongside plans for those
in care to be given "absolute priority" in admissions to schools,
however, oversubscribed. Lord Adonis said the scheme would
be included in a Green Paper on childcare to be published
by November 2006.
(Telegraph, 29 August 2006)
The social exclusion minister has been to Germany to find
out how 'social pedagogues' look after children in care. In
a Parliamentary debate, Hilary Armstrong hinted that the model
might inform the looked-after children green paper, due in
September 2006. Ms Armstrong said: "The principles that they
use to educate, challenge and engage with children seem extremely
valuable and effective. The approach is focused on emphasising
each child's individual potential in a holistic way, involving
education in health and the overall child's development."
She added that she was discussing how to make placements for
looked-after children more stable with the Department for
Education and Skills.
(ChildrenNow, 1 August 2006)
Tony Blair began his Let's Talk initiative by admitting that
both his Sure Start scheme for under-fives and policies for
children in care have failed the socially excluded. Let's
Talk is seen by No 10 as a new version of the Big Conversation
and a crucial vehicle for reforming public services through
a series of events designed to establish Labour's next manifesto.
In front of public sector professionals, private sector managers
and Labour members, including some of his recent critics inside
the parliamentary party such as John Denham and Karen Buck,
the prime minister admitted that the government has "not
yet found a way of bringing the shut-out into mainstream society".
He said figures for the number of children in care receiving
decent GCSE results were appalling and problem families sometimes
had as many as five agencies supposedly helping them, as a
result of which no one actually did.
Mr Blair said of the multibillion-pound Sure Start scheme:
"If we are frank about it, there is a group of people
who have been shut out against society's mainstream and we
have not yet found a way of bringing them properly in. When
we started Sure Start - I was always a bit sceptical that
in the end that we could do this - there was an idea it would
lift all the boats on a rising tide. It has not worked like
that. Sure Start has been brilliant for those people who have
in their own minds decided they want to participate. But the
hard to reach families, the ones who are shut out of the system
... they are not going to come to places like Sure Start.
Their problems are so multiple, and if you have one organisation
dealing with one aspect of their problem, these families then
end up having five or six organisations dealing with them,
but no one is actually dealing with them. If we are to change
that we need a different way for government to operate and
we need different systems of delivery. The government in such
cases needs to make full use of the voluntary and third sector,
some of whom have greater expertise than the organs of government
do."
He said it was appalling that the government was spending
as much as £2bn on children in care and yet only 8%
were gaining five decent GCSEs and only 1% went on to university.
Mr Blair told his audience there "has to be a profound
rebalancing of the civil liberties debate", and continuous
reform was the only way public services could meet ever-increasing
public expectations.
(Guardian, 16 May 2006)
- 57% of children in care leave without a single GCSE or
equivalent.
- 6% get five Cs or better at GCSE. Results of care leavers
have not risen since 2003
- Children in care are nine times more likely to be excluded
than their peers.
- 36% are entered for no GCSEs at all.
- By the age of 19, at least a third of care leavers were
not in education, employment or training.
- There are an estimated £16billion in savings for the taxpayer
of raising the educational attainment of children in care,
equivalent to half of England's education budget, according
to research.
The government has promised to: "substantially narrow
the gap between the attainment of children in care and their
peers by 2006". Targets include:
- Raising the achievement of 11-year-olds in care to at
least 60% of the level of their peers.
- Ensuring no more than 10% reach school-leaving age without
having sat a GCSE or equivalent.
- Increasing the proportion of 16-year-olds in care who
get five or more GCSE A*-C by four percentage points each
year, and ensuring that at least 15% reach this level in
each local authority.
The government has admitted it will miss its targets for
school-leavers but says it is on course to reach its goal
for 11-year-olds. In 2004, the government recognised the difficulties
caused by regularly moving home and school by setting a target
to have 80% of children under 16 in the same placement for
at least two years, by 2008.
(TES, 12 May 2006)
From September 2007, all local education authorities and those
schools that control their own intake must give priority in
their oversubscription criteria to looked-after children,
under the Education (Admission of Looked After Children, England)
Regulations 2006.
However, the provision for looked-after children in schools
has become more than just an admissions issue and all governors
need to be aware of guidance published in 2005 by the education
department. There are about 39,000 school-age children in
the care system - under the Children Act 1989, a child is
"looked after" if he or she is in the care of the
local authority or provided with accommodation for more than
24 hours.
The guidance, Supporting Looked After Learners: A Practical
Guide for Governors, points out that Ofsted inspections
will specifically consider and report on how far the education
provided contributes to pupils' wellbeing. Vulnerable children
will be given specific attention by inspectors, who will assess
a school's provision across a wide range of criteria, including
attainment, personal development, wellbeing, care and support.
(Guardian, 21 February 2006)
Sir Cyril Taylor, GBE, chairman of the Specialist Schools
and Academies Trust, asks whether boarding schools may help
children-in-care:
www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2180807
(TES, 13 January 2006)
Imagine a residential home for children in care in a leafy smart
suburb. It's a large old house with elegant high ceilings, set
in a large garden. There's a delicious smell of supper coming
from the kitchen where a child and a member of staff are preparing
a meal. A couple of other children are chatting with two other
staff round the big wooden table.
This is the Josephine Schneider House, in the suburbs of Copenhagen.
Josephine Schneider House epitomises not just an approach to
residential care but the character of the Danish state system
of social services and education. The attention to the individual,
the huge investment in highly qualified staff, and the priority
of developing strong relationships are all are key principles
of the Danish tradition of pedagogy.
The contrasts with the UK are immediate: high level of staffing;
the proud declaration that the place has no rules; each child
must be treated as a unique individual; and the fact that more
than 60% of the children go on to higher education - a far cry
from the outcomes of looked-after children in the UK.
Pedagogy is a word for which there is no good English translation
but finally, after nearly a century of indifference, the European
traditions of pedagogy are beginning to generate keen interest
in some quarters in the UK.
Pat Petrie, from the Institute of Education, has just completed
a comparative study of children in care in England, Germany
and Denmark for the government. Her conclusion is blunt: "Pedagogy
is enormously important. If we don't take it on board, we will
fail children."
Petrie argues in a briefing paper for the departments of health
and education that the new interest in pedagogy in the UK is
being driven by the childcare issue and the related debates
about quality and workforce. There is also an increasing desire
to find new approaches in the children's care system, and pedagogy
could provide the overarching principles for the increasingly
close relationship envisaged between education and children's
services.
Pedagogy is best understood as a process of nurturing the development
of other human beings, and pedagogues work with all ages, from
children in kindergartens to older and mentally ill people.
Implicit within this idealistic aim is a profound set of principles
about what constitutes human flourishing and well-being. Aspects
that are particularly emphasised, and which inform all pedagogic
method, are how pedagogues work to cultivate personal creativity
and to facilitate in their clients the capacity for strong,
easy relationships with others.
Staff at Josephine Schneider House all trained as pedagogues
in a degree course lasting three-and-a-half years. The pedagogues'
degree course is very different from a UK social work course,
with much attention given to personal development. At Copenhagen's
Frøbelseminariet, one of the oldest pedagogy institutes
in the country, there are magnificent facilities for drama,
art, craft and music. Instead of social work qualifications
being about the acquisition of knowledge on the law, social
policy and theory, the focus is on developing practical relationship
skills with clients and with fellow pedagogues. How do you draw
out a child who lacks confidence? How do you build trust with
an adult with learning difficulties? How can you resolve problems
as a team in an institution?
The contrast between the British and the Danish social services
is stark, says Kieron Hatton, head of the Centre for Social
Work at Portsmouth University, who has been running a joint
programme with Frøbelseminariet since 1992 and is devising
a new course with an emphasis on pedagogy. He says: "Danes
who come to work in our residential homes for children comment
on how rigid they are, how often we call in the police to deal
with difficulties, and how scared of risk we are. They find
how we work with young people very disturbing."
Hatton believes that what has driven the direction of UK policy
in the last two decades has been an aversion to risk. "The
scandals in the children's services have permeated all social
work," he says. "We've become very risk averse, and
residential units have been geared up for health and safety.
Yet all the evidence shows that young people gain more from
being exposed to some risk. We've been good at the protection
of clients, but not their development."
One of the key elements of their training has been how to manage
the complex balance of being engaged with clients at a personal
level, yet remaining professional. One strategy is to use the
"common third", an activity that the pedagogue and
client can learn together, such as mending a car, making a poster
or cooking a meal.
"In the UK, qualified staff spend a lot of their time putting
information into a computer database," Hatton says. "There's
a lot about paper chasing in the care management approach, which
is so widespread now. It involves care packages with measurable
outputs, and targets."
Petrie remarks on the way in which pedagogues' training enables
them to be confident about using their personal judgment, rather
than the more typical UK approach of relying on procedures,
which often cannot accommodate individual circumstances.
The irony is that just as the UK begins to grasp something of
the rich idealism of the concept of pedagogy, Denmark is beginning
to import the Anglo-Saxon preoccupation with value for money
and measuring effectiveness. The reforms the Danish government
has been proposing may seem mild by UK standards, but they have
provoked fierce resistance from pedagogues, who see it as the
beginning of a slippery slope. There have been demonstrations
by students, claiming that the government is "killing Danish
pedagogy".
(Guardian, 8 March 2006)
Targets to reduce the number of children leaving care without
a qualification are not clear or rigorous enough, and some local
authorities do not have any. According to figures from the local
government Data Unit, 251 of the 397 young people who left care
in Wales in 2005 did so without a single GCSE or GNVQ. But the
aim was for under 100 to leave without a formal qualification
in 2004-05.
Now there have been calls for targets to be tightened up
and taken more seriously. There are currently no national
targets in Wales to track the educational attainment of looked-after
children, and no plans to introduce them. The Assembly government
set a target in 2001 that at least half of children leaving
care at 16 would have two or more GCSEs or GNVQs by 2002 and
three-quarters by 2003.
That has since been abandoned and officials now agree separate
targets with individual local authorities. But TES Cymru has
discovered that four councils that represent some of the most
deprived communities in Wales do not have specific targets
for looked-after children's education agreed with the Assembly
government.
The targets are set out in policy agreements, which show
that all 22 Welsh LEAs are tracking the numbers of mainstream
pupils who leave without a qualification. However, Blaenau
Gwent, Cardiff, Torfaen and the Vale of Glamorgan do not have
separately identified Assembly-agreed targets for children
in care, although they may have set their own priorities locally.
Children in Wales, the umbrella group for charities working
with children, believes many councils are under-performing
in comparison to each other.
(TES Cymru, 3 February 2006)
Data on the educational performance of almost half of
the 12,000 looked-after children in Scotland is often missing,
says Graham Connelly, a senior lecturer at Strathclyde University.
An analysis by Dr Connelly showed that Scottish Qualifications
Authority results cover only about half of looked-after children
because schools often do not identify them. He said: "In
short, without accurate reporting we cannot be clear whether
things are improving, remaining static or getting worse."
His comments echo those of inspectors who underlined the Scottish
Executive's concern that many pupils are continuing to miss
out on their education.
Graham Donaldson, senior chief inspector, urged a refocusing
on the educational difficulties of the lowest-performing 20%
of pupils and questioned whether the attainment gap between
the lowest and highest performers was measured accurately.
He asked; "Are schools and education authorities clear
about which of their pupils fall within the lowest attaining
20% nationally and which approaches to improving their attainment
are most effective?"
The inspectors emphasise that twice the proportion of pupils
who leave school with no qualifications are found in the 15%
most deprived areas.
The full report Missing Out: a report on children at risk
of missing out on educational opportunities can be downloaded
at: www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/hmiemoeo.pdf
(TES Scotland, 20 January 2006)
The Assembly Government has still to achieve a 2003 target
of three-quarters of children in care achieving at least two
GCSEs. Up to March 31 2005, only 35% did so - down from 37%
in the previous year. A spokesperson said the Government had
"moved away from a single national target" and was
now setting individual targets for each local authority, based
on the numbers of children leaving care without qualifications.
Results had improved, with the proportion of looked-after
children achieving at least one GCSE rising 11 percentage
points to 46% between 2000-1 and 2003-4, she added.
Mike Bosley, the development officer for Children in Wales,
said, "The reasons are systemic. These are children who
lack stability in their lives generally. They tend to have
a lot of time out of school so they have a lot of catching
up to do," he said. "They move schools, so there
is a lack of continuity. And it's sometimes difficult to get
the level of encouragement needed from carers to help them
to go to school, do their homework, and go to after-school
clubs."
However, some authorities are doing better than others, and
most now have specialist education workers working with children
in care. The Assembly Government's "children first"
initiative has helped fund specific programmes aimed at improving
their health and educational attainment, he added.
As of 31 March 2005, Wales's 22 local authorities were looking
after 4,431 children, and another 1,627 had been in care at
some point during the previous year. Of those leaving school,
58% failed to achieve a single GCSE or equivalent qualification.
In Wales as a whole, 7% of school-leavers missed out on a
qualification. In England, the figure was only 5%.
(TES Cymru, 16 September 2005)
Social care and education leaders joined forces in June 2005
to tell the Government that more needs to be done if radical
change is to be achieved in the education of looked-after
children.
The new duty on local authorities to promote the educational
achievement of looked-after children, part of the Children
Act 2004, came into effect on 1 July 2005. It is a key plank
of the drive to improve outcomes. But the Association of Directors
of Social Services, the Association of Directors of Education
and Children's Services, the Confederation of Education and
Children's Services Managers, and the Local Government Association
all say draft statutory guidance on implementing this duty
merely "reiterates what already exists".
The British Association of Social Workers has also called
on local authorities to "properly cost" what is
required to meet the educational needs of looked-after children.
(Children Now, 28 June 2005)
Only 9% of children in care achieve at least five GCSEs at
grade A* to C, compared with 54% of all children. Government
figures reveal that just three councils have more than a fifth
of looked-after children getting top GCSE passes, writes Children
Now. Of these, Merton is the best, with 35% of looked-after
children in the borough achieving good passes. Dorset comes
second with 27% and Westminster ranks third at 21%. However,
in 104 councils the number of children in care gaining five
good GCSE passes was too small to be recorded, and in 21 councils
no children at all managed to gain qualifications at this
level.
"Many of these young people continue to have lives that
are hugely disrupted and disjointed," says Lynn Breckenbridge,
the deputy chief executive for Voice for the Child in Care.
"Through the chaos of one placement after another their
education suffers enormously, even if they attend school,"
she says. The report also reveals that at the end of school
Year 11, 59% of looked-after children remained in full-time
education compared with 73% of all children.
The release of the figures coincides with a report by the
children's charity, NSPCC, that highlights the relationship
between histories of maltreatment and the poor school performance
of children in care. The report concludes that "Children's
social workers need to be aware that a child's experience
of abuse in a significant risk factor for subsequent problems
developing in the school environment."
www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway
(The Times, 7 June 2005)
Targets to improve the exam results of children in local
authority care look certain to be missed, researchers have
warned. Just 59% of children in care managed to sit at least
one GCSE or equivalent exam last year. The target for 2006
is 90%. And less than a fifth of councils are hitting the
target for 15% of children in their care to obtain at least
five good GCSEs.
A five-year study by the Institute of Education, University
of London, has followed 129 young people in care who won places
at university. It blames negative stereotypes of young people
in care among teachers, as well as the general public for
the low achievement rates. But the study also found that inspirational
teachers were often responsible for encouraging them to apply
to university.
Margaret Quigley, one of the researchers, said, "It
takes someone to look beyond the possible difficult behaviour
and have a real understanding of what a young person has gone
through to even arrive at school." She said that more
than 60% of children in care had been severely abused or neglected
by their families.
Good foster parents can transform children's educational
opportunities, the researchers found, but some offered little
or no support. Many children also suffered from a great deal
of instability. One girl told researchers she had moved 33
times. But it was children in residential care who faced the
biggest obstacles. Just one of the 129 young people in the
study went from a care home to university. Researchers heard
how pupils often had to study while fighting broke out around
them. The authors suggested that modules on the care system
should be included in more teacher training courses.
A Department for Education and Skills spokeswoman said new
guidance due in July 2005 was intended to help raise the educational
achievement of 16-year-olds in care.
Going to University from Care by Sonia Jackson, Sarah
Ajayi and Margaret Quigley. Email ioe@johnsmith.co.uk
(TES, 3 June 2005)
Children in care should be sent to the best schools to boost
their chances of overcoming child abuse and neglect, researchers
have said. Young people who survive severe abuse are being
"let down" by councils that fail to support them,
a study from the Institute of Education in London found.
Students who were taken into care as children because their
parents abused them, or were drug addicts or alcoholics, go
on to perform well at university, the report said. But many
are put off applying because they believe they cannot rely
on support from their local authority, according to the pioneering
five-year project.
The study, sponsored by child support charity the Frank Buttle
Trust, found fewer than one in 100 children leaving care go
on to university. This compared with nearly half of young
people living with their own families, according to the researchers,
led by Sonia Jackson.
But after tracking 129 students at 68 universities, the researchers
found that care leavers were less likely to drop out of their
studies than the average student in the UK. The national drop-out
rate is 14%, but among the group of care leavers in the study
the rate fell to 10%.
A third of the students from care backgrounds - 33% - had
graduated by the end of the study, 39% were still studying
for their degrees. Only one student in the group had failed
their course.
But the report, welcomed by the education secretary, Ruth
Kelly, criticised the wide variation in support local authorities
were offering. Prof Jackson said too many councils were failing
in their duties as "parents" to children taken into
care. "It is a tragedy when able young people who have
had to overcome many obstacles to get to university are let
down by the local authority that is supposed to be their corporate
parent," she said. "It is not enough for local authorities
just to give financial support. They need to behave like good
parents and provide the encouragement and information that
any parent would."
The report recommended that carers should receive funding
to support their foster children through university. And children
in care should be enrolled in "high-achieving schools"
with a strong history of sending students to university, not
just any school with an empty place.
In the foreword to the report, Ms Kelly said directors of
local children's services should take "personal responsibility"
for "improving the support they offer to looked-after
children".
(Guardian, 19 May 2005)
The Scottish Executive is stepping up efforts to improve
the attainment of young people in care, following the latest
figures which show that the gap with the rest of the school
population is as wide as ever. The latest cash advance comes
on top of £10 million the Executive committed to work
in this field in 2001-02, allowing £500 to £2,500
to go to each child for books, equipment and homework materials.
But research also published on the experiences of young people
in care, commissioned from Who Cares? Scotland by the Executive,
shows that "they feel little benefit from recent investments".
The latest figures show little improvement over the years.
Six out of 10 of the 16 and 17-year-olds who left care in
2003-4 did not achieve any qualifications at Standard grades
5-6 at Foundation level or above - compared to less than 10%
for Scotland as a whole. Some 27% did, however, leave care
with Standard grade awards in English and maths. The gaps
are relatively small in the early years but widen dramatically
with each school stage. English reading 5-14 results show
around 70% of looked-after children achieve their level in
P3 compared with 90% of others. By P6, the respective figures
grow to 60% and 90% and by S2 it becomes 10% and 60%. Similar
trends are reported in 5-14 results for writing and maths.
The figures also show that around 60% of young people leaving
care were not in any kind of education, employment or training,
compared to just 14% of all 16 to 19-year-olds. "There
has been little change in these proportions since the previous
year," the statistical bulletin reports. It also notes
another familiar feature of these figures, that children in
care are more likely to be excluded from school - there were
227 cases for every 1000 pupils, compared with just 50 per
1000 pupils overall.
While there is a strong link between deprivation and the
numbers in care, it is not consistent. Edinburgh, Aberdeen
and Midlothian have a higher number being looked after relative
to their levels of deprivation, while North Lanarkshire, South
Lanarkshire, Fife and Falkirk have relatively low numbers.
The bulletin comments: "A number of indicators suggest
an increasing number of children being looked after for their
own care and protection referrals; the average age of a child
in care falling; and higher numbers of looked-after children
being placed away from their parental home.
(TESS, 29 October 2004)
Children in care are being "adopted" by Victorian-style
patrons who will champion their education. Senior officers
at Barnet council are each overseeing one of 43 Year 11 pupils,
monitoring their progress behind the scenes and using their
influence to divert extra resources to them if necessary.
It could mean the Tory-run council pays for extra tuition
for the GCSE pupils or ensures they get preferential access
to the best schools. Paul Fallon, director of children's services,
said the officers are asked to have the same expectations
as they would have of their own children. "Young people
repeatedly say that although people are very, very kind and
sympathetic to them in care, they didn't have high expectations
and made excuses for them. Children will live down to your
expectations."
George McNamara, policy officer for the children's charity
NCH, said just 8% of teenagers in care leave with five GCSEs,
compared to more than half of the general population. He said:
"A 15-year-old might have had four different placements
already and been to three different schools. That's particularly
damaging. The idea of having a champion to ensure they get
the opportunities other children take for granted could have
a huge impact. But it needs to start from when they are very
young."
(TES, 22 October 2004)
A scheme offering children in care places at boarding schools
has won the support of the three main political parties. The
idea was first suggested by the Independent Schools Council
and the Boarding Schools Association two years ago. The Department
for Education and Skills said it was taking the matter "very
seriously".
The scheme would identify pupils at primary school age where
the head and other staff fell they would benefit from a modern
boarding school education. Adrian Underwood, national director
of the Boarding Schools Association, said: "It would
offer these young people who may - through no fault of their
own - have disrupted family backgrounds, a continuity of care.
It would give them long-term, 24-hours-a-day pastoral care.
It is letting children know where they are going to be. "It
is not appropriate for everybody and no one is suggesting
there is a great magic wand."
(TES, 17 October 2003)
Only one in 100 children in care in England goes on to university
compared with one in three school leavers according to research
by London University's Institute of Education.
The survey also showed that only 3% of young people who
are in care obtain five or more GCSEs at grade C or above,
compared with 49% of the school population as a whole. There
are 21,706 children in care in England.
The research shows that children who have been in care of
local authorities are blighted by low expectations and inadequate
support. The findings coincide with the launch of a five-year
Government-backed project by the institute designed to encourage
those leaving care to extend their ambitions.
The scheme will track care leavers who have managed to move
into higher education to discover the obstacles they face
and the support they need. The results will be passed to the
Government.
(The Times, 11 December 2000)
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