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There is a strong link between children in care and social
exclusion. Between a quarter and a third of rough sleepers
spent time in local authority care when they were children(1),
as did over a quarter of prisoners. Children who have been
in care are two and a half times more likely to become teenage
parents; the children of women who have been in care are themselves
two and a half times more likely to go into care than their
peers. As adults, those who have been in care are disproportionately
likely to become unemployed.
It is agreed that while children in public care are no more
or less able than the general population, their educational
success is extremely low. Pupils in public care are 13 times
more likely than other pupils to be excluded from school.
Key Stage tests show poor results for younger children in
care, and Government figures show that in 2003-04, only 43%
of the 6,700 children leaving care in England aged 16 or over
had at least one GCSE or GNVQ; the Wales figure for 2003 was
39%. Only 6% were achieving five good GCSEs, compared with
around half of all young people (2), and
only one percent go on to university. However, a good education
is especially important to children in care, to enable them
to make the transition into adulthood and to break the cycle
of disadvantage. The Social Exclusion Unit's A
better education for children in care looks into this
problem.
Quality Protects
In response to the problems outlined above the government
launched Quality Protects in 1998. This is a programme of
social services reforms, including achievement targets, with
the aim of developing a whole authority approach to improving
educational outcomes for children in public care. Schools,
the LEA and Social Services form a partnership under the programme,
which is the responsibility of the Department for Education
and Skills.
Other government initiatives
Targets
The target set in April 2003 is to improve life chances for
children, which includes narrowing the gap between children
in care and their peers. This means that, by 2006:
- results in English and maths for 11-year-olds in care
should be at least 60% as good as their peers
- no more than 10% of young people in care should reach
school leaving age without having sat a GCSE level exam
- 15% of young people in care should achieve at least five
GCSEs at grades A*-C, with the proportion of those who achieve
this rising by 4% each year from 2002
The Social Exclusion
Unit report
A report by the Social Exclusion Unit, A better education
for children in care, was published in September 2003.
The unit consulted with key stakeholders and with young people
themselves, and the report highlights five areas for action,
based on the barriers it identifies which prevent children
in care from achieving in education:
- Greater stability - so that
children in care do not have to move home or school so often
- Less time out of school - longer
in education - help with school admissions, better
access to education with more support to help children in
care attend school regularly and stay on after age 16
- Help with schoolwork - more
individual support tailored to the child, backed by more
training for teachers and social workers
- More help from home to support
schoolwork - by giving carers better training
in children's education
- Improved health and wellbeing
- with teachers, social care staff, health workers and carers
all working together in the interests of the child, to meet
his or her emotional, mental and physical health needs.
The report points out that there are still significant gaps
in our knowledge of educational outcomes for children in care,
and states that the government will carry out further research.
It also gives a large number of references to information
on children in care for those interested in finding out more.
Government
initiatives for children in care (in addition to Quality
Protects)
- Joint Guidance issued in 2000 by the Department of Health
(DH) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES)
requires local authorities to plan how they will implement
reform and to provide all children in their care with a
Personal Education Plan, and states that a designated teacher
should be appointed in every school to act as resource and
advocate for looked after children.
- Raising achievement
of children in public care, a report and recommendations
produced by Ofsted in 2001.
- In October 2001 new laws came into force, making the continuing
care of looked after young people from 16-21 a mandatory
responsibility of local authorities instead of an option
(3).
- The Education Protects programme, run by the DH and DfES,
is centred on a website which aims to foster good communication
links between schools and social services. The programme
was launched to support implementation of the joint DfES/DH
guidance mentioned above.
- Choice Protects is a funding stream for improvements to
fostering services, including promoting the stability of
placements and helping foster carers support children's
education.
- The Vulnerable Children's Grant supports LEA initiatives
to raise attainment by vulnerable children, including those
in care.
In March 2004 there were 61,100 children and young people
being looked after by English Councils and 4,516 in Wales
(2003 figures) - numbers that have been rising for the past
few years. Approximately 11% in England and 6% in Wales are
looked after in children's homes, which are much lower numbers
than in the past (4). However, the proportions
of boys and of younger children in care have been rising.
Boys, children from some ethnic minority groups, disabled
children and those from lower socio-economic groups are over-represented
in care. Looked-after children are nine times more likely
than their peers to have a statement of special needs (5).
Most unaccompanied asylum-seeker children under 16 are taken
into care when they arrive in the UK. The majority of looked
after children are in mainstream school.
Links:
References:
(1) Preventing Social Exclusion, Social Exclusion
Unit, 2001. The other statistics in this paragraph also come
from the Social Exclusion Unit.
(2) National Statistics First Release (2004):
Children looked after in England (including adoptions and
care leavers): 2003-04, Department for Education and Skills.
(3) The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000.
(4) Official Statistics and Surveys, DH, at
www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/fs/en
and Statistics for Wales, National Assembly for Wales,
at www.wales.gov.uk/keypubstatisticsforwales/index.htm.
(5) Outcome Indicators for Looked-After Children:
Twelve months to 30 September 2002, England, DH, 2003.
The Social Exclusion Unit's 2003 report, A
better education for children in care, points out
that there are still significant gaps in our knowledge of
educational outcomes for children in care. Some things are
known: a study carried out in 1997 by the National Foundation
for Educational Research (NFER) (6), into
the progress made by LEAs in addressing concerns about the
poor educational attainment of children in care, found several
factors contributing to the success of those who have been
in care. These include:
- Stable and consistent care
- Early reading
- Regular school attendance
- Support from well informed foster carers
- Having a mentor
- Understanding the importance of education for future life
chances
- Financial support for further and higher education.
The study also found that successful intervention cannot
be achieved without a truly corporate effort from the local
authority, and that political ownership and leadership from
senior management are essential; and that much innovative
and effective practice does not become embedded in policy,
practice and mainstream funding because it is time-limited
and project-based.
Another NFER study, into the attainment of pupils at Key
Stage 4 in 2001 (7), found that local authorities
often simply did not know about the educational careers of
the young people in their care. It also identified some school
factors which lead to positive outcomes for the young people,
including stable tutoring, mechanisms for the identification
of individuals' needs and progress, and a range of accessible
formal and informal support.
The evaluation of the Right to Read project in 2000 (8),
which placed 'starter libraries' in residential care homes,
found that children were reading and enjoying the new books,
and that carers believed that the presence of the books was
having a beneficial effect on the children.
More research
Links:
References:
(6) The Education of Children Who Are Looked
After, Felicity Fletcher-Campbell, NFER, 1997.
(7) The Achievement at Key Stage Four of Young
People in Public Care, Felicity Fletcher-Campbell and Tamsin
Archer, NFER, 2003.
(8) Right to Read: Promoting the benefits
of reading to children and young people in public care: Project
findings and recommendations for good practice, The Who Cares?
Trust, The National Literacy Association and The Paul Hamlyn
Foundation, 2001.
A number of organisations and local authorities are working
to promote reading to children and young people in care, through
practical steps such as taking books into homes, and by providing
support, for example through mentoring. The Reading
Buddies scheme run by Read On - Write Away! trains young
people, many of whom are care leavers, in specific skills
needed to support primary school children in their reading,
with the result that the literacy skills of both are improved.
The National Literacy Association (NLA) has a range of initiatives
to support children in care, known collectively as Looking
after Literacy. This includes running Reading Roadshows (a
day for carers on the importance of sharing books); establishing
Starter Libraries in children's homes; and equipping children's
homes and individual children with computers. It is also working
with Volunteer Reading Help and TimeBank on a project called
Time for Children, to train volunteers
to give one-to-one reading support to children in care in
the north west of England.
The NLA is also a partner in the Right
to Read project to get children in care and their carers
excited about books, together with The Who Cares? Trust, the
national charity working to improve public care for children
and young people. The Who Cares? Trust and the NLA have published
Breaking their Fall: Meeting the literacy needs of looked-after
children, which puts forward proven strategies for addressing
children's literacy needs.
More initiatives
Links:
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