News

"Education, education, education" trumpeted the Labour Party when it came into government. But the annual round of exam results seems to suggest that looked-after children are still being failed by the education system. Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal that just 41 per cent of looked-after children achieved one GCSE or GNVQ pass last year, a decline of 4 per cent on 2001. The national rate for other children stands at about 98 per cent.

The government's response has been to lower the targets. One target will now measure achievement by whether children in care have sat a GCSE, rather than passed one (news, page 6, 3 April).

Like many, Benni-Jo Tyler, regional development worker for London and the South East at A National Voice, which helps looked-after young people have a greater say in how services are provided, is disappointed with the decision: "I suggest that what young people need is much greater faith, support and stability to reach their full potential, not lower expectations of their abilities."

Helen Hibbert, education development manager at the Who Cares? Trust, a charity that promotes the interests of looked-after children and young people, agrees. She feels the new targets seem to be reinforcing the stigma of being looked after. "We need to be more positive about their potential. If national statements are being made saying they are likely not to be as good as their peers, it's a blow to their self esteem."

The decision to change the targets has been taken too soon, Hibbert adds. "Some of the children whose results are being measured have had years of emotional neglect. Local authorities are working really hard to meet the educational needs of children in care, and I'm not sure that the targets reflect the work that is going on. You can't hope to make up for years of difficulties in such a short time. I think we will see improving results over the years as the local authorities' work pays off."

Hibbert acknowledges that progress needs to be measured, and agrees with the system of targets that measure what is happening locally, so that children going through the same education experience are evaluated. "There's still a need for local authorities to emphasise how important it is to set individual targets for children. If a child is only capable of getting a small number of GCSEs, then it's great if they pass them. But if they are capable of getting more, but pass enough to make the target, that's not as good, as they haven't fulfilled their own potential."

Government should be working as hard as it can at raising expectations, rather than lowering them, says Lynn Breckenridge, deputy chief executive of Voice for the Child in Care, a network set up to empower looked-after children and young people. And there is another factor that is being overlooked, she says. The current target for placement moves for looked-after children is no more than three in a year. While a move wouldn't always mean a change of school, this would often be the case. "While we still have targets like these, it's very hard to see how their education can be less fragmented," adds Breckenridge.

Simon Rouse, managing director of residential child care provider Corvedale Care, also feels that the government is ignoring the root of the problem. "The big scandal isn't whether they sit or pass an exam, it's the number of children in care who don't get a full-time education because of frequent placement changes."

There can be many reasons behind this, Rouse adds, and they aren't always the child's fault. They may be truanting, or have special needs, and there may be a lack of provision for them. Even the statementing process itself can be longwinded.

"Under guidelines for educating young people in care, they should receive 25 hours a week. We have our own special school, and make sure that all young people who aren't in a short-term emergency placement get a full-time education or as much as they can manage. But other providers may not have a school, and they may find it hard to persuade the local education authority to provide one," he says.

Part of the problem for care leavers' services is that they don't see young people until they are 16, when they have already sat their GCSEs and the damage of an unsettled education is already done.

Children who live in residential care rather than foster care tend to have a more disrupted education because their lifestyle is often more chaotic and less settled, says Julie Mepham, service manager for Sheffield Council's care leavers service.

There is a lot of added pressure on looked-after children, she says. "Being at school five days a week is a hefty thing to manage if your family life has broken down, you are living with different people and feel different from others at school. If you miss one day, it's easy to miss another."

Quality Protects and the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 have led to a greater awareness of education and a better link between teachers and social workers, says Mepham.

As an incentive to care leavers to continue their education, Sheffield Council gives young people in further education a weekly allowance and a weekly bus pass. For those going on to university, a support package pays their accommodation and a weekly allowance, in the hope that they won't take out a student loan. And this support package isn't reduced if they get a part-time job.

"We don't want them to start off in debt because they are already disadvantaged," says Mepham. "A lot need an incentive. Then when they start to achieve academically, that becomes the incentive rather than the cash."

Aiming high

The government's social exclusion unit and the Who Cares? Trust carried out a consultation into the educational experiences of children in care in autumn 2001. Just under 2,000 children and young people responded. Some of the findings include:

• 97 per cent thought education was important.
• 61 per cent of these cited career prospects as the main reason.
• 87 per cent said there was a member of staff they could talk to at school.
• 76 per cent knew what they wanted to do in the future.
• 4 per cent mentioned further or higher education.
• 80 per cent always attended school.
• 5 per cent never attended.
• 15 per cent had had to move school four times or more because of placement changes.
• 37 per cent had at some point been excluded from school.
• 51 per cent of these said that more support would have helped them to avoid exclusion.
• 26 per cent said their social worker helped them think about their future.
• 50 per cent didn't have access to mentoring schemes.

For more information go to www.socialexclusionunit.gov.uk/young_people/cic_consultation.htm

Lisa Powers, 17 

"I used to have a laugh at school but that was because I was always misbehaving," says Lisa who was fostered at 12 but stayed at the same school. However, her behaviour went downhill. "I had lots of placements. No one wanted to look after me because of my behaviour, so I was moved out of the borough. It used to annoy me that I was being moved because no one wanted me, and I felt left out because everyone knew my situation at school and people took the mickey. 

"My mum died when I was nine, and it was easier just to tell the other kids that I was in care when they asked me about my mum and dad than to say what had happened."  When the out-of-borough placement also broke down, Lisa went to Corvedale Care, which works with children in local authority care who have had major placement breakdowns coupled with highly disruptive education.   "At Corvedale Care, the atmosphere was different from a normal mainstream school. There were only seven of us in the school, and you got to know all the teachers and had quite a bit of one-to-one tuition. I did better when I moved there, and passed six GCSEs with an A* grade for art.  "I was going to go to college, but met my boyfriend and moved in with him in Hereford. I'm now seven months pregnant, but I'm planning to go to college, I want to do an art course. I want to be a tattooist or a graphic designer.  "My social workers kept changing, and I never bonded with professionals until Corvedale Care - there's a member of staff who visits me regularly in her own time. I want to say 'thanks' for that."

Kevin Matthews, 20

Kevin was placed with a foster family in his home area of Hackney, east London, when he was 13 because of family issues.

"When I was 15 they decided to move me to different foster parents in south London because I was getting into trouble. It was the best decision for my personal safety, but it was very disruptive for my education.

"I was taking my GCSEs in English, English literature, maths and science and had handed in the course work, and then I was moved. I was capable of doing them but I was very disruptive in school.

"School wasn’t a priority for my social worker, who was more concerned with whether I’d settled in and my behaviour, not the long-term outlook. My foster carer instilled in me that I couldn’t just be in the house doing nothing. I had to get some qualifications."

So Kevin went to Lambeth training school, where he passed qualifications equivalent to a D grade GCSE in science, maths, English and IT. He then worked with a NVQ-based company in Croydon, south London, studying business administration, and went on to work for other organisations including Tate & Lyle and public sector trade union Unison.

But then he decided to go back to college: "I did an access course in politics, economics, business and marketing at City of Islington College. I was shocked with how I got to grips with going back to formal education, especially when I didn’t finish GCSEs and I was scared of writing essays.

"I’ve now been offered a place at Southampton University as my first choice and Birmingham University as my second, doing politics and international relations and starting in September.

"I’m looking forward to it, it’s been a long road. The door’s wide open and I’m just going to try and run through it. If I’m able to come this far, the world’s my oyster."

Carole Taylor, 18

Carole was three and her brother five when they were fostered. They were being abused by their mother, who was a heroin addict, and by their alcoholic father. They stayed with the same foster family in Lewes, West Sussex, until Carole was 15. Until then she had been doing well at school and enjoyed a lot of lessons, but that changed when her foster parents said they were going to move to Somerset.

"It went downhill then, because I thought I was leaving soon so what was the point in trying. But then my foster parents said my misbehaving showed I didn’t want to go with them."

Carole ended up being placed with another local foster family, while her brother moved to Somerset. It was a traumatic time. The new placement broke down because Carole was used to being part of a family and, understandably, she didn’t do as well as was expected in her GCSEs. However, she still managed to pass seven.

After dropping out of college before obtaining a City & Guilds qualification, Carole went on to do an Open College Network accreditation in training. She has obtained a 100-hour award for being a millennium volunteer, and does voluntary work in two Red Cross charity shops. In the past year she has turned her life around, come off ecstasy, crack cocaine, cannabis and alcohol, and has done a lot of work for Xpress Advocacy in Uckfield, East Sussex - a project run by the looked-after children’s organisation Blueprint.

"I’m not certain what I want to do, but I do want to work with people," she says.

Like many care leavers, Carole feels that a mentor at school would have really helped, particularly when life at home was at its most difficult. Since leaving school and care she has had a mentor, which has given her an important relationship: "I never found it easy to talk to many people, and we get on really well."

Gemma Church, 20

A combination of reasons led to Gemma being taken into care at the age of 12. Her father had committed suicide when she was nine and her mother wanted to move from the house that Gemma had grown up in. Looking back, Gemma can now understand why her mother wanted to start afresh: "My dad was a violent alcoholic. But I was confused, I didn’t know why he had killed himself and I found it hard to deal with.

"I started mixing with a bad crowd, running away, and got mixed up with drugs and awful boyfriends."

Problems escalated and her mum found it hard to cope. Gemma was placed with foster parents a few miles from her home in Lancing, West Sussex. She returned home after about six months, but was later placed with new foster carers in Lancing.

Although Gemma remained at the same school throughout these moves, the disruption affected her schooling and she frequently truanted.

"I hated everybody knowing about my home life. Teachers would take me aside and say they knew I was having a hard time but I shouldn’t let my schoolwork slip…You didn’t want them to treat you any different, but you wanted people to take into account that things were difficult."

What would have helped? "Not having everyone know about it, educating teachers so that they don’t have so much prejudice, and a mentor to keep me grounded."

Despite all the upheaval Gemma found academic work fairly easy, and she gained eight GCSEs. She went on to take a Btec in graphic design and illustration.

"I loved the college culture because it was so much more accepting. I felt I fitted in better, but I dropped out after a year because I got bored."

By now Gemma was doing speed, ecstasy and cocaine on a regular basis. After spells working in a hamburger chain and waitressing, she decided to go back to college and sit A-levels in psychology and sociology and an AS-level in critical thinking. "I was interested in why people do things and how they operate - it probably goes back to my dad."

She gained an A, B and C grade respectively. Gemma kicked drugs about a year ago: "I was doing drugs with an older group of people and decided that I didn’t want to be like them when I was their age."

Gemma has now moved in with her mum and is a trainee project worker for the West Sussex PAR project, providing advocacy, independent visiting and a rights service for all children in care.

"I would like to do an Open University degree. It feels like things are really coming together."