Published by What Works for Children’s Social Care and Cardiff University, May 2020
SUMMARY
In the UK, children and young people who have been in care are significantly less likely to progress into higher education. Researchers from Cardiff University’s Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre (Cascade) set out to explore the expectations of young people in care when it came to higher education and how expectations change over time.
Researchers analysed data from the Next Steps dataset, which followed the progress of more than 15,700 English young people. Of those, 231 were classified as care-experienced. After taking other factors into account, they found 65.9 per cent of non care-experienced children in Year 9 thought they were likely to go to university compared with 45.2 per cent of children who were previously or currently in care.
Children were asked again about their aspirations when they were in years 10, 11 and 12. While expectations around going to university generally declined, the fall was greater for care-experienced children – 13.8 percentage points compared with 10.8 percentage points, showing the already substantial aspiration gap increased over time. In Year 10, 60.6 per cent of children who had never been in care thought it was likely they would attend university, dropping to 58.5 per cent in Year 11 and 55.1 per cent in Year 12. For care-experienced children, the proportion who thought it likely they would attend university dropped to 37.8 per cent in Year 10, 34.8 per cent in Year 11 and 31.4 per cent in Year 12.
In Year 12, care-experienced young people and those who had never been in care were asked what they thought they would be doing in two years’ time. Around eight per cent of both groups saw themselves in an apprenticeship or something similar. However, care-experienced young people were significantly more likely to say they would be in a full-time job – 43.4 per cent compared with 31.9 per cent – and less likely to say they would be studying full-time – 31.2 per cent compared with 49.9 per cent. Young people were also asked whether they needed to have a university degree to get the kind of job they wanted. Half of young people who had never been in care agreed or strongly agreed with this compared with 36.5 per cent of care-experienced young people.
Care-experienced young people were also less likely to believe the best jobs go to people who have been to university (43.1 per cent compared with 51.5 per cent), less likely to say most of their friends were planning on going to university (26.4 per cent compared with 53 per cent) and more likely to agree that “people like me don’t go to university” (22.1 per cent compared with 14.8 per cent).
Young people were also questioned at the age of 20 or 21, by which time many of the care-experienced young people had dropped out of the sample, with only 90 remaining. According to the researchers’ analysis, only 13.1 per cent of care-experienced young people were in higher education at this time, compared with 41.4 per cent of young people who had not been in care. The researchers looked at what these young people’s aspirations had been in Year 9 and compared this to reality. Overall, 54.3 per cent of those who thought themselves likely to apply for university had ended up in higher education. However, the percentage of care-experienced young people who originally thought they were likely to apply and had actually applied or gone to university was much lower at 21.6 per cent.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
The authors make various recommendations. These include ensuring young people can access support to apply for university from all those involved in corporate parenting. Councils should ensure young people are aware of all sources of financial, practical and emotional support when transitioning to and living at university, and make sure these are accessible. Meanwhile, all universities should be aware of the needs of care-experienced young people and understand how the right support can enable more to get into and remain at university.
FURTHER READING
- The Educational Progress of Looked-after Children in England: Linking Care and Educational Data, Judy Sebba and others, Rees Centre and University of Bristol, November 2015
- Being a Student with Care Experience is Very Daunting: Findings from a Survey of Care-experienced Students in Scottish Colleges and Universities, Linda O’Neill and others, Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, June 2019
- Educational Outcomes of Children in Contact with Social Care In England: A Systematic Review, Matthew Jay and Louise Mc Grath-Lone, Systematic Reviews, July 2019
