News

• New figures reveal extent of home care delivery changes

The government has watered down its targets for improving the education performance of children in care following the announcement of poor results, writes Derren Hayes.

New targets include 90 per cent of care leavers sitting a GCSE exam by 2006, which is a relaxation of a target set by the Department of Health in 1998 that 75 per cent actually pass a GCSE by 2003.

Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics have shown that 41 per cent of children in care achieved one GCSE or GNVQ pass last year, well short of its target of 75 per cent and 4 per cent worse than 2001.

The numbers of children in care aged 16 attaining 5 A-C grades in GCSEs stayed the same as last year at 5 per cent, making it almost impossible for the government to meet the 2003-04 target of increasing this to 15 per cent and maintaining that level until 2006.

The new target is for the proportion of children in care passing several GCSEs to reach 15 per cent by 2006.

The government sees poor education performance as one of the key reasons for care leavers struggling in later life – they are more likely to be unemployed, in prison or homeless.

Health minister Jacqui Smith also unveiled revised targets that by 2006, 11-year-old children in care achieve English and maths results of at least 60 per cent of their peers.

It has also set an overall target of “substantially narrowing the gap between the educational attainment and participation of children in care and that of their peers by 2006”.

Liberal Democrat social care spokesperson Paul Burstow attacked the government for creating “ridiculous new targets that are impossible to measure or will be unachievable”.

“This admission of failure demonstrates ministers’ hollow promises and leaves some of the most vulnerable children woefully exposed to further letdown,” he added.
A Department of Health spokesperson said the government announced in the spending review last year that it would review the targets after considering work done by the social exclusion unit in this area.

The figures also revealed that adoptions of looked after children increased by 25 per cent between 2000-02; those detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 fell slightly from 26,600 in 2001 to 26,300 last year, and that there was a 10 per cent decrease from 2001 to 2002 in the number of households receiving home care services.