Outcomes for Looked-after Children Attending Boarding Schools

30 August 2023 2 mins read Education Social Care

Researchers from the University of Nottingham were commissioned by the Royal National Children's Springboard Foundation (RNCSF) to evaluate its boarding school programme for children in care or on the edge of care and help understand the potential educational and economic benefits.

The findings suggest sending looked-after and vulnerable children to boarding school improves educational attainment. Illustration: Sensvector/Adobe Stock

Report authors: David Murphy; Mary Oliver; Michael Adkins; Gianni De Fraja; Shun Chen
Published by: University of Nottingham, July 2023

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

An excellent education is crucial in ensuring children with care experience reach their full potential. State boarding schools and independent schools offer some of the highest quality education in the UK but places are expensive and can be difficult to arrange for looked-after children.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham were commissioned by the Royal National Children's Springboard Foundation (RNCSF) to evaluate its boarding school programme for children in care or on the edge of care and help understand the potential educational and economic benefits.

METHOD

The researchers looked at educational outcomes for about 110 looked-after and vulnerable children supported to attend boarding school through RNCSF between 2013 and 2020. All had completed GCSEs.

They used the Department for Education's National Pupil Database to create a control group of children in care with similar characteristics and looked at the potential costs and savings associated with getting better grades such as increased earning potential.

The team used data on about 210 boarders supported by the RNCSF to look at social care costs and savings, including comparing the cost of boarding school with a children's home or foster placement.

They interviewed professionals and young people involved in the DfE-funded Broadening Educational Pathways scheme, which helps place looked-after and vulnerable children in boarding and independent schools. Finally, they looked at surveys of boarders supported by the RNCSF.

KEY FINDINGS

The findings suggest sending looked-after and vulnerable children to boarding school improves educational attainment, is cost-effective and raises aspirations.

More than half – 54 per cent – of children from the boarding school programme achieved five good GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 including maths and English compared with 13 per cent of the control group. That suggests boarders could be four times more likely to achieve good grades.

Looking at social care costs, the researchers suggest savings to the public purse from sending 210 children in the study to boarding school were in the region of £4.47m per year. Overall they worked out the financial benefits add up to about £2.75m for every 100 children.

All boarders surveyed by RNCSF reported struggling at some point but their feedback suggests it can be life-changing. Many said they felt more positive and ambitious about their future than they did before attending boarding school and most said it had opened up opportunities.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Some children highlighted the need for more and better pastoral support in schools with more opportunities to meet other looked-after or vulnerable children in similar circumstances.

The researchers stress better data and more research is needed, especially where public money is used to fund boarding school places.