Educational outcomes for children in care

Since the introduction of the Children Act 2004 there has been a particular duty on local authorities to promote the educational achievement of looked after children, but the latest figures show a growing discrepancy between the qualifications they leave school with compared with all children.

Last year [2009] just 15% of children who had been in care at least a year left school with five GCSEs grades A*-C, or the equivalent alternative qualification, compared with 70% of all children.

This figure is slightly improved on the previous two years – when 14% and 11% of children in care left school with good grades in five exams. But all children have done better, and the gap between the achievement of looked after children compared with their peers is actually getting bigger. In 2005 there was a difference of 46 percentage points between the two groups and it has grown year on year to 55 points in 2009.

Starting young 

The trend starts in primary school. SATs results for primary school children in care also compare very unfavourably with all children: last year 46% achieved the expected level 4 at key stage 2 in English and maths, compared with 80% and 79% of all children in those subjects respectively.

At key stage 1 the gap between the achievements of children in care and others is smaller, but still significant: 58% achieved the expected level 2 in reading, 52% in writing and 65% in maths, compared with 84%, 81% and 89% of all children in those subjects.

So the discrepancy between the achievement of looked after children and all children begins right at the start of their education but increases significantly as they get older.

Nearly one in three looked-after children (32%) got no GCSEs or equivalent last year, compared with one in a hundred (1%) of all children, and these children are more than three times more likely to end up unemployed when they leave school: last year 14% of children in care who left school had no job to go to, compared with just 4% of all kids.

All doom and gloom? 

This paints a grim picture for children who are brought up in care. So what is being done to promote the educational achievement of looked after children?

News

• Government policies on access to further and higher education abandon care leavers to the whims of localism, says report - 16-Mar-2012
• The Trust calls for Government to look wider than adoption - 14-Mar-2012
• Care leaves most looked-after children better off, study finds - 12-Mar-2012

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