Launching the Care Matters: Time for Change white paper in the heart of London's financial district was a clear signal of the changing attitudes to helping children in care.
According to the government, big business has a major role to play, not just in a financial sense, but also by offering expertise in areas such as mentoring.
The white paper says the government is aware of the work many major companies do with vulnerable children and young people in the community as part of their corporate social responsibility programmes. It wants to work with such companies to promote their involvement and get children in care participating in more leisure activities and employment schemes.
City banks
HSBC is seen as one of the major players in helping children in care achieve their potential. Dame Mary Richardson, chief executive of the HSBC Global Education Trust, was keen to help children in care after years of working as a head teacher. The bank is investing £1m to provide individual tutoring for children in care, which will be overseen by virtual head teachers - local authority staff based outside of schools - to oversee the education of looked-after children. "I think the virtual head teacher is going to be a breakthrough," she says. "We will be monitoring it very closely."
The London Borough of Merton is one of four councils chosen to pilot the scheme, which allows it to expand the tutoring services it already offers to give extra lessons to children in care placed in Merton by other authorities. "HSBC's involvement enabled the pilot to occur," says Keith Shipman, youth inclusion manager who put in the project bid for the council when he worked as the children's team manager.
Care Matters also highlights the work that HSBC plans to do with care leavers in getting them onto its management academy programme. The scheme will give young people the chance to work with HSBC and attend college on a day release basis. And Richardson believes the encouragement of someone like a virtual head teacher could encourage more care leavers to do a special programme to get them up to the academic level they need for the management academy.
"If these young people are going to go into a career like this they need a helping hand," she says. "If they had the ambition to go down this road we would support them." And although the bank has only pledged £1m so far, Richardson hints more could be on the cards, saying the bank will give "whatever it takes".
Other financial companies Citi and Deutsche Bank are also to work with the Department for Children, Schools and Families to look at how they can work with children in care. Swati Patel, head of corporate citizenship, Europe, Middle East and Africa for Citi says the government approached the company because of the work it does on its Citi Foundation Programme. It is due to discuss possibilities with them in the autumn. "We're looking at how we can get company employees to be advisers to children in care. In London we have more than 20 schemes for employees, from lunchtime reading schemes, through to one-to-one mentoring."
Another company hoping to offer mentoring schemes with its staff is BSkyB. As well as mentor volunteering, the company is looking to expand its Living for Sport project, run in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust, to involve more looked-after children (see box). Through the scheme children on the edge of education are given the chance to take part in unusual sporting activities, such as rock climbing. They are also visited by an athlete at school.
Brand appeal
Danielle Darling, head of community investment at BSkyB, says: "The best statistic we have is that just over 90 per cent of pupils continued to show improvements in behaviour even 12 months after they had finished." The power of the BSkyB brand, which is worn by the athletes when they give school talks, is a huge incentive to getting young people involved. "The children know the brand and that's what engages them," says Darling. Now BSkyB wants to develop the scheme to allow more schools to take part.
Plans to get businesses involved with children in care have been on the cards for some time and, according to David Holmes, chief executive of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering. Ian Johnston, chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, adds: "I'm not really surprised because this government sees the involvement of business as the answer to many things."
So will getting companies involved really give looked-after children the opportunities they need to achieve their ambitions? Holmes sees it as a step forward and is unconcerned that children in care have become a priority for business: "I think it's a practical way of giving young people in care and leaving care positive opportunities to learn about the way business works, to have mentoring opportunities and hopefully increased chances of employment. I hope it means it will become much more common to see children in care working in big companies."
But Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, is more cautious. "It's essential that everyone involved in looking after children in care is ambitious and helps them achieve their potential. I welcome the involvement of big business in providing opportunities as long as they are real and provide for a wide range of abilities."
As director of children, schools and families at Merton Council, Dave Hill knows what the input of business can help it achieve. He has seen the positive side of working with business, with a company sponsoring one of the borough's schools and seeing its results improve by 11 per cent. But he is aware that before a council works with a business it must think through carefully what both want to achieve. His council has been approached by businesses offering Christmas presents for looked-after children and asking to sponsor a child in care, which is what he brands a "corporate approach". "We don't do that, we tell them that's inappropriate," he adds.
But at the heart of the issue is the welfare of children in care and helping them to achieve their full potential. As Holmes says: "Big business needs to know it's not just about creating opportunities, it's about understanding that these children have suffered in their life. It's a chance to make a difference to a child's life and it's about understanding the care system."
FACT FILE
- £1m from HSBC will help up to 1,000 children in care in four local authorities access around 15 hours of tutoring a year
- Tesco is to give employees who wish to become foster parents five days of paid leave
- BT offers a total of 450 new apprenticeships a year and is working on ways to increase the number of care leavers who take part
CASE STUDY - BSkyB, Living for Sport
A modern-day Maid Marian was found at a school in Kent after archery was introduced through Sky's Living for Sport project, which the company wants to expand to involve more children in care.
Rachael Penny has become one of the stars of the archery class at Angley School in Cranbrook, Kent and has picked up an award at the school sports evening awards. "I thought it was something different that I hadn't done before and I might enjoy it," recalls Rachael, 13. After being selected to take part in the project, Rachael found she was a dab hand with a bow and arrow.
She found during the lessons, where they took it in turns to get the highest score, she had an eye for the target. "I started off a bit wobbly, but I got better. It picked my confidence up and I felt a lot better in myself for doing it," she says.
She got so good that she was able to give disabled basketball athlete Clare Strange lessons on how to fire a bow and arrow when she came to the school.
"She had never tried archery, so when she came in we taught her how to use a bow correctly," she explains.
Archery has also helped Rachael in her schooling, as learning about the sport has helped her improve her maths through distances and keeping score.
