The statistics

It's by no means a given, but children who spend time in the care system are less likely than other children to achieve academic success or benefit from stable relationships.

They are more likely to get involved in crime, misuse drugs and have problems with mental health than their peers.  This isn't just a legacy of pre-care experiences; research shows that life in care itself can contribute to instability.

Leaving the family home means that a child is entering a giant lottery, with their whole lives often at stake on the outcome. Can they be supported to return home? Will they find a stable foster care environment, stay for years and be encouraged academically? Or will they yo-yo in and out of care, repeatedly change school and home, before being ejected at 16, unhappy and alone, into a dodgy bed-and-breakfast?

• When they leave primary school, just under half of children in care will have reached the national curriculum test level expected for their age - compared with 82% of all children.
• Almost one third of children in care leave school with no GCSEs or vocational tests like GNVQs.
• Only 15% of children in care obtain five good GCSEs - compared with 70% of all children.¹
• Only 6% of care leavers go to university - compared with 38% of all young people.²
• One third of care leavers are not in education, employment or training - compared with 13% of all young people.³
• More than half of all children in care have at least one mental health problem - compared with one in ten of the general child population.⁴
• More than one in 10 children had three or more placements in 2010^{. 5}
• 27% of the adult prison population has been in care and almost 40% of prisoners under 21 were in care as children (only 2% of the general population spend time in prison).
• A quarter of young women leaving care are pregnant or already mothers, and nearly half become mothers by the age of 24.⁶

Doesn't add up, does it? 

^{1 Source: http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000930/sfr08-2010.pdf}

^{2 Source: http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/datasets/a00196857/children-looked-after-by-las-in-england}

^{3 Source: http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000960/sfr27-2010v2.pdf}

^{4 Source: http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/190/4/319#SEC2}

^{5 Source: http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000960/sfr27-2010v2.pdf}

^{6 Source:  http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2008/01/23/107036/teenage-pregnancies-among-children-in-care-research.htm}

News

• New publication for young people in care about post-16 opportunities - 27-Jan-2012
• Pay foster carers annual fees, says The Policy Exchange - 27-Jan-2012
• Care system found to counter offending - 27-Jan-2012

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