Government urged to improve attainment of children in care

The government should completely close the gap in achievement
between children in care and other children by 2020, NCH urged
today, writes Clare Jerrom.

The children’s charity has called on the government to
make the pledge after highlighting that in 2004, just six per cent
of children in care gained five or more GCSE’s compared with
over half of all pupils.

“Children in care are children of the state, and how well
we serve them is a measure of how our society treats children more
generally,” said Clare Tickell, NCH’s chief
executive.

“At present we are letting them down very badly and
consigning many to social exclusion when they grow up. We
won’t end child poverty unless we tackle this problem once
and for all,” she added.

The charity has launched a new paper stressing that children in
care are prevented from achieving more as a result of a
wide-ranging systems failure including unstable placements and
insufficient training for teachers and carers.

NCH calls for the government to integrate and improve the ways
social care and education professionals work together to support
the learning of children in care, under The Children Act.

Closing the Gap from http://www.nch.org.uk/