News

An influential government policy unit has warned that the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 has failed to address the poor educational performance of teenagers in care in its first year of operation.

Research by the social exclusion unit (SEU) has found that, in four out of five local authorities, children in care failed to gain the target of one GCSE this academic year, with only a 1 per cent improvement in the number of children achieving the national average of five GCSEs or more.

There were green shoots of recovery with two-thirds of local authorities showing an improvement in academic performance among children in care. But this was offset by a slide in performance on the part of the remaining one-third of councils.

Of particular concern was local authorities' failure to develop a clear model of outstanding practice in meeting the new act's requirements.

The Children (Leaving Care) Act came into force last October. It set out new responsibilities for local authorities to reduce the number of children leaving care early, improve their life opportunities, and ease the transition from care to independent living.

For the research, the SEUstudied the educational results of children in care at five local authorities over the past year.

Presenting the interim findings at the National Leaving Care conference in Southampton last week, Marcus Bell, SEU divisional manager for children in care, said that if local authorities were "cracking the problem", results would be better.

"We haven't found an authority that is doing everything right," he added.

Bell said the research showed that too many children were still spending long periods of time out of school and being excluded; care placements remained unstable; and waiting times for therapy were too long - in one council there was a 30-month delay for child and adolescent mental health services.


Despite the disappointing results, Bell said that local authorities had developed a greater focus on education, while social services and education departments were working together more effectively.

"But there's still an issue of social workers not prioritising children's education sufficiently," he added.

Care leavers' higher education struggles

New research into care leavers' attitudes to post-compulsory education has shown that many have problems establishing relationships with peers and teachers and they often have lower aspirations.

The Southampton University study found that care leavers feel teachers ignore them more frequently and do not understand their individual needs. Care leavers had difficulty in listening to instructions, found teamwork harder, and struggled to meet people of the same age and background.

The study also suggests that non-care leavers have higher educational aspirations and attend courses more regularly, while care leavers are more likely to give up courses. 

- Guidance and Support for Care Leavers in Post-compulsory Education from aw5@socsci.soton.ac.uk