Sally Bartolo has just returned from a student exchange trip to the US. "It was a really good experience," says the 21-year-old, who is studying accounting and finance at university.
Her journey into higher education was not straightforward. Having entered foster care aged 10, she had seven different placements before leaving aged 19. She went to three different secondary schools and missed Year 11, spending two years out of education. However, she did GCSEs and A-levels at college before securing a place at university.
Despite it being universally agreed among the social care sector that a good education is one of the best ways for looked-after young people to improve their life chances, their educational performance as a group remains poor. Only 12 per cent of those in care for at least a year achieved five GCSE A* to C grades in 2010 compared with 69 per cent of all children, Department for Education figures show. And only seven per cent of care leavers go on to university.
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