Report urges renewed focus on pupils in care

The educational attainment of children in care has remained stubbornly low for decades, despite government investment in various initiatives to improve outcomes for this vulnerable group.

A total of 65,520 children were looked-after by local authorities in England last year, a figure that has grown by nine per cent since 2007. But last year, only 13 per cent of looked-after children achieved five GCSEs at grades A* to C, including mathematics and English, compared with 58 per cent nationally.

In response, an inquiry by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for looked-after children and care leavers is calling for a renewed focus on the issue, including more funding, new statutory duties on local authorities and better training for professionals.

Led by Edward Timpson – the recently appointed minister for children in care who previously chaired the APPG – the report recommends greater financial investment to support looked-after children’s education in the form of a “pupil premium plus”, which would add to the existing premium and provide schools with an extra £1,000 for every child in care they teach. 

The report suggests making the role of virtual school heads a statutory post, giving them control of pupil premium cash for looked-after children. It also says foster carers and children’s home staff should be trained on how to prioritise education, while initial social worker training should place more weight on education and teachers should be trained on issues common to children in care, such as trauma.

Alison Ryan, education policy adviser at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, argues that making the virtual school head post statutory would encourage better multi-agency support. “Having mental and physical health, social care and education working together is better for all vulnerable children, particularly those in care,” she says. “For that to work, you need a central person, so the virtual head recommendation is a good one.”

She adds that teachers would benefit from greater awareness of the issues affecting children in care, but insists schools cannot overhaul the education of looked-after children alone: “Schools have to put policies in place that are clear for all staff in terms of how they deal with the issues brought by children who have had damaging experiences, and how to work with other agencies.”

Ryan also says measuring the attainment of looked-after children against national GCSE figures fails to take into account how their experiences may have affected their education. She argues that virtual school heads should develop increasingly sophisticated measures to gauge children’s progress: “There has to be some kind of nuance, which does not mean low expectations, but understanding that catch-up is a big issue for these children.”

Targeted support
Natasha Finlayson, chief executive of The Who Cares? Trust, which has been campaigning to make the virtual school head role statutory, says: “We know from our own research that many children in care struggle to achieve the same results as other children, that they are more likely to have special educational needs and to be excluded from school. They face real challenges when it comes to their education and need targeted, personalised support.”

She argues that the pupil premium will be ineffective at raising standards “unless those with direct experience of the needs of children in care have a direct say in how they are supported”.

David Berridge, professor of child and family welfare at Bristol University, co-authored the evaluation of the initial virtual school head pilot scheme in 2009. He says virtual school heads are well placed to work with schools to make decisions on existing spending or additional pupil premium money for children in care. “We found virtual school heads had organised paying for things such as individual tuition,” he explains. “Most looked-after children liked it and volunteered to spend extra time in school.”

On the recommendation to improve training for foster carers and children’s home workers, Berridge argues that the proposal could radically improve the educational experience of looked-after children.

“Schools can be very confusing and even intimidating places,” he says. “To challenge a school in the way that a middle-class parent might do for their own child can take some skills. We don’t select or train foster carers to have those skills.”

Finlayson adds: “We believe that professionals working with children in care – particularly foster carers, keyworkers in children’s homes, social workers and independent reviewing officers – would benefit from dedicated training on how their role can help raise the educational attainment of children in care.

“There is a lot of research evidence out there about what helps and what hinders, but we need to make sure it filters down to the people who care for children on an everyday basis and who make key decisions about their lives.”


In numbers

73%
of looked-after children have special educational needs, compared with 21 per cent of all children

19%
of looked-after children in secondary school have had at least one exclusion, compared with nine per cent of all children

13%
of looked-after children achieved five GCSEs at grades A* to C, including maths and English, compared with 58 per cent nationally
Source: Department for Education