Children in care
According to the latest official figures there are more than 83,000 children in care in the UK, including 60,900 looked after children in England.
It is well established that these children are more likely to have poor educational experiences, leave school with fewer qualifications, are at higher risk of offending, becoming a teenage parent and being not in education, employment or training.
Barnardo’s has services throughout the UK supporting looked after children and young people and those leaving the care system.
Visit our Foserting and adoption website to find out more about Barnardo’s family placement services.
Taking children into care
Following on from evidence given to the House of Commons Children, Schools and Families committee and an article for the Institute for Public Policy Research, Martin Narey, Chief Executive of Barnardo’s, provoked a public debate when in an interview with the Observer newspaper in September 2009, he questioned the orthodoxy of ‘birth family is always best’.
He stated:
- We can and should try to fix families and we often succeed. But we should not persist where experience tells us that the prospects of success are bleak.
- When in care, fostering should be the first and will be the best option for most children. But we should not repeatedly expose children to one placement after another. Stability is vital and for some children that will be best delivered through high quality residential care.
- The best outcome for children however, when we are very clear that a baby cannot be adequately cared for is early adoption and we need to be braver about taking those decisions and effecting the adoption swiftly.
Read the full press release detailing Barnardo’s position on taking children into care.
Failed by the system
Failed by the System - published by Barnardo’s in 2006 - reported on the educational experiences of children in care.
We surveyed 66 young people aged between 16 and 21 who had been in care and were supported by Barnardo’s Leaving Care projects.
The results revealed a range of negative educational outcomes for these children:
- 79% had no GCSEs on leaving school
- half had been in more than 4 care placements
- they were much more likely to have been bullied and been excluded from school
- they were and less likely to have someone attend a parent’s evening than children who were not looked after.
The report called for changes in schools, local authority children’s services and government to address the poor educational outcomes for children in care, including:
- a statutory requirement to have a designated teacher for looked after children in each school, and that all teachers receive basic training in the care system
- a requirement to maintain placements for children at the same school unless it is completely untenable due to distance, and to not change placements during GCSE years
- children’s services plans should have a requirement to address how agencies work together to support children in care and improves their educational experiences and outcomes
- looked after children should be consulted in decisions regarding their education, and this should form part of the statutory review process
- the Government should research practice in the best performing authorities and ensure that learning is applied by all authorities
- A level results and university entrance by children in care should be monitored and there should be a statutory requirement for all universities to support care leavers
- annual statistics and targets for school exclusions should include those for children in care.
Download the full report (PDF).
The government has taken forward many of these proposals in its recent implementation of the Care Matters reform programme.
For more information on Barnardo’s policy work on looked after children please contact Enver Solomon, Assistant Director of Policy:
