From care to career

Twenty-year-old Scott Marsden is an ambitious young man with a bright future. He is bang in the middle of a three-year electrical apprenticeship in Derbyshire.

“It’s going great, I’ve passed all my exams so far and I’m enjoying it,” he says, matter-of-factly. Most of his time is spent out on the job learning his trade, with one day a week in college. “I’ve got a new direction and know I can have a good life if I work hard.”

However, the outlook has not always been so promising. Scott was taken into care at the age of five. Although he had a stable foster home, life got decidedly worse when he turned 16. “I wanted to do my own thing but went down the wrong path,” he admits. “I was in and out of court, always in trouble with the police and didn’t know where I’d end up.”

Thankfully for him, help was at hand from Derbyshire County Council’s leaving care service. Delivered in partnership with the charity Barnardo’s, the service supported Scott to find somewhere to live. Crucially, he was put in touch with the authority’s Care Leavers’ Employment Team. It opened the doors to the apprenticeship, which is now having a transformative effect.

Scott is one of many to benefit from the work of this small but dedicated team. Ofsted inspectors described it as a “major strength”, and in November the team emerged triumphant in the Children in Care category at the 2012 Children & Young People Now Awards. The four-strong team is comprised of a manager, two project workers and an administrator. They provide a range of services to 16- to 24-year-olds who are leaving or have already left care, helping them take up further education, training and employment and get a good start in adult life.

The current level of youth unemployment makes it tough for many young people to carve out a career after school, college or university. For those who have spent time in the care system, it can be especially difficult.

Some have had to contend with severe physical and emotional abuse, trauma and upheaval, having a detrimental impact on their ability to achieve their potential. Others have suffered from moving between placements and a lack of continuity in their education, resulting in leaving school with few if any, qualifications.

“I worked with one young person who’d had 65 different placements. When you’re moved from pillar to post like that you don’t stand a chance,” explains Karen Glaves, one of the two project workers. “Leaving care can be traumatic too. In an average home you get a lot of support from your parents when you leave, whereas children in the care system often have to make their own way.”

Young people are referred to the team by agencies in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Glaves starts the process by meeting a young person and assessing their needs. Some simply need a bit of advice or guidance while others need much more intensive support. She and her other project worker will each work with 25 to 30 young people at any one time.

Workers may see a young person two to three times a week if they are on a work placement, supporting both the young person and their employer. “We go to young people’s houses, take them to open days, take them to work or college on their first day, help them buy clothes – all the kinds of things you’d do for your own child,” she says. “If they need help getting up in the morning, we go round and get them up, if they’re feeling ill we help them get a doctor’s appointment. We’re not just some person sitting in an office – we’re there for them, and there for the long haul.”

Derbyshire’s Care Leavers’ Employment Team has been in existence for more than seven years. It helps young people find work experience and can help pay for travel, work clothing and equipment. There is even a small fund for driving lessons. Its £194,000 budget includes about £19,000 a year to create short-term sponsored employment placements, giving young people the chance to do a job for real, get a reference and build up a CV. The staff are also on hand to help with travel plans, bus timetables and ensure young people receive the best advice about benefits.

Making a contribution
While some young people may be ready for college or university, others require more time to find their way. “You might have a young person who hasn’t really done anything for a while except sitting around watching TV,” says Glaves. “Working in a charity shop for a few hours a week may not seem like much but for someone who basically hasn’t done anything for a year, it is a big deal – they’re doing something positive, making a contribution, working with other people and communicating. It gives them self-esteem and the confidence to move on to something bigger.”

The team works closely with the Barnardo’s Aftercare service where it is based. Together they have helped put Derbyshire in the top 10 local authorities in England for care leavers’ attainment. From April 2011 to March 2012, 81 per cent of care leavers aged 19 in Derbyshire were in education, employment or training compared with a national average of 58 per cent.

The apprenticeship scheme is a relatively new development, so other councils have contacted the team about how it runs such a programme specifically for care leavers.

“We used to be more geared towards work experience and supported employment, which are great for life and social skills,” says manager Javid Iqbal. “But when young people leave, they can find themselves in the same position they were before. Apprenticeships are more likely to lead to employment.” With a greater emphasis on work-based assessments, they also appeal to those who struggled at school and are wary of returning to a classroom environment.

The team has secured apprenticeships for young people in fields such as hairdressing, social care, retail, and being a mechanic. “We find out what young people want to do and search among the ‘trusted traders’ in their area as well as working with education providers like Chesterfield College,” says Iqbal.

So far, five young people have gained full-time, permanent jobs after completing apprenticeships. Electrician Nick Tweedy – Scott’s employer – was already thinking about taking on an apprentice when the team got in touch. “Scott’s doing brilliantly,” says Tweedy. “He listens, he learns and he’s good at what he does. Whether he’d been in care or not didn’t really make any difference to me. I was just looking to hire the best person. I met Scott and he seemed like a very pleasant young person so I was willing to give him a chance.”

The funding was important. The scheme covers Scott’s wages so Tweedy is not out of pocket although he has provided tools, safety equipment and gives Scott a lift to and from work – which makes a big difference in large county like Derbyshire. He set up his own business five years ago, and at the aged of 31 is not so much older than Scott. Tweedy confirms he plans to take on Scott full-time once his training is complete.

Derbyshire’s decision to invest comes as council budgets across the country continue to be under huge pressure. The last couple of years have seen turmoil and confusion surrounding further education funding, not least the abolition of the education maintenance allowance and the introduction of a bursary scheme for vulnerable teenagers including those in care and care leavers.

“We needed some kind of funding to assist these young people to take up apprenticeships, and are fortunate in that our authority is quite forward thinking as a corporate parent,” says Iqbal.

Derbyshire initially allocated £50,000 to help 10 young care leavers take up supported apprenticeships. Such was the success of the scheme that the budget was replicated the following year and then extended to allow 12 additional young people to benefit.

Tomorrow’s parents
“This has to be a priority because these children are tomorrow’s parents,” explains Ian Thomas, Derbyshire’s strategic director of children and younger adult services. “If we don’t close that achievement gap, they’re going to be the parents of tomorrow’s troubled families, parents of children with poor outcomes more likely to end up in the care system. It’s an issue for society as a whole.”

The Care Leavers’ Employment Team has an integral role in wider efforts to raise aspirations and achievement among children in care and care leavers under Derbyshire’s innovative “Uni-fi” scheme, which secured funding from the Creative Councils programme run by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) and the Local Government Association.

The project has already contributed to a major improvement in Key Stage 2 results for looked-after schoolchildren. Derbyshire has since invested a further £1.11m over three years to ensure clear and consistent support for all looked-after children and develop initiatives such as mentoring.

Thomas says he wants to see many more of Derbyshire’s looked-after children achieving good GCSE grades and heading for university. It is also ensuring schools use pupil premium cash for children in care effectively, and exploring the use of social pedagogy.

“We need to change the culture of the care system,” he says. “The focus has been on safeguarding, which is incredibly important. However, we’ve never really asked children in care what they want to do or what they want to be. We need to get them thinking about direction and possibilities a lot earlier and we all need to have higher expectations of these young people as corporate parents, working with schools, children’s homes and foster carers.”

For Scott, the apprenticeship has proved to be a critical turning point. “I had the motivation but I just needed a push in the right direction,” he says. “I’m very grateful to Javid and the team from Barnardo’s, and Nick has helped me out a lot, made my life easier by buying me tools and providing the protective gear that I need. I’m just going to keep my head down because I know I won’t get another chance like this.”