Failing children? : a study of the educational experiences of young people in residential care

This study has investigated the educational experiences and circumstances of a sample of twenty-eight young people in seven residential care homes in a large local authority in Scotland. All of the young people were secondary school aged. Research indicates that children looked after away from home are at a particular educational disadvantage. In comparison with their peers they tend to be behind in their attainments, leave school with fewer qualifications and be more at risk of being excluded from school (HMI/SWSI, 2001). This study therefore sought to consider how the young people in the sample were faring educationally and whether the Looking After Children (LAC) materials made a positive contribution to the educational progress of a sub-set. The degree to which these aims were met during the investigation is mixed, reflecting variations in the quality of available information across the study sample and highlighting a general concern about the standard of record keeping in both social work and education departments in the study authority. The data obtained in the study provide a rich picture of the experiences and backgrounds of the young people together with important insights into their in-care experience so far as it relates to their education. These data concern the backgrounds and home circumstances of the young people, their reasons for coming into contact with social work services, their school experiences before and after coming into care, issues relating to their care placements and details of the interplay between their school and care careers. A range of research methods was used in the study, including the examination of documentary sources of data, semi-structured qualitative interviews and a quasi-experiment design. These methods were chosen to maximise the likelihood of achieving the study aims. The results show that many of the young people's lives prior to placement in local authority care were characterised by socio-economic disadvantage, most had experienced fractured family relationships and a relatively high proportion had experienced emotional, physical or sexual abuse. Difficulties at school were apparent from an early age for a relatively high proportion of young people in the sample. There was little evidence of effective measures of early intervention in school and behaviour difficulties, both at home and at school, featured in a high proportion of the sample. Inordinately high exclusion rates among the young people in the study meant that many of them spent too much time out of school. Record keeping in both social work and education departments in the study authority was poor. Communication between frontline staff in social work and education was not well established and there were some indications that there was a lack of trust between the two groups. The data also suggest that the priority afforded to education by care workers and social workers was low. With regard to the LAC materials, residential care staffwere marginalized in the training and preparation process and this had a negative impact on their understanding of the method and their capacity to use the materials. While there was broad agreement among the residential workers interviewed that the approach was useful for engaging young people in work about their education, it seemed that the participation of parents and other professionals did not occur on a meaningful level. Data obtained through interviews suggest that one of the major strengths of the LAC materials is their potential capacity to facilitate a sense of agreement about shared responsibilities. However, a major area of concern raised in the study is the disproportionate level of school exclusion experienced by looked after young people and from the views expressed by residential workers it is doubtful if the potential of the materials can be realised without the issue of exclusion being addressed on a broader strategic policy level.