Care Homes: Education In Care

Young people in care often struggle to gain qualifications at school, but what are care homes doing to improve the educational attainment of these teenagers?

Mark, 16, hadn’t had a particularly illustrious school career when he was excluded at 15. He had been living in residential care in Buckinghamshire and school wasn’t high on his agenda.

But being taken out of school proved to be a turning point in his educational life. He was given a tutor within days and is now taught with two or three other young people. He believes he is actually better than when he was at a mainstream school.

“When you’re in a class of 30 you don’t get much in the way of help, but here you get more personal attention because there are two tutors,” explains Mark. “Now, if I’ve got any problems I can ring my tutor any time.”

Like Mark, there are many young people in care who struggle to do well at school. According to the Social Exclusion Unit’s 2003 document A Better Education for Children In Care, only eight per cent of young people in care achieve five or more A* to C grades at GCSE, compared with half of all young people. They also had poor results in key stage tests at age seven, 11 and 14.

The report points to a lack of management and leadership skills at senior level and a poor use of available resources. These young people spend far too much time out of school and often don’t have enough help or support with their education if they fall behind in their school work.

But their lack of achievement has nothing to do with the length of time that they live in a residential care home, according to the National Teaching & Advisory Service (NT&AS), which believes that while moving from home to home can be a factor, the poor standards are more to do with low expectations and the fact that social workers and education staff mistakenly believe the other is dealing with the problem. Tim Walker, chief executive of the service, says: “Young people fall between two stools.”

Young people’s educational attainment often gets worse once they enter the care system, but despite the fact that they might get more focused and personalised teaching within a children’s home environment, many educators believe mainstream schools are the best place to learn.

Whereas a typical school managed by a residential care home 20 years ago would educate 10 to 50 children and young people, they now only cater for small groups or even individuals, reports NT&AS.

Walker believes there is a growing recognition that the care system needs to give young people normal experiences – particularly by allowing them to enter mainstream education. “Setting up a school in a children’s home, sometimes with only one pupil, is about as far removed from normal as you can imagine,” he believes. “Education should be about mixing with ordinary children.” It is far better, says Walker, to provide expertise and financial support so that the young person can attend mainstream school.

Susanna Cheal, chief executive of The Who Cares? Trust, agrees. “Sometimes young people move to different homes, which can be difficult for them. Their self-esteem can be at rock bottom,” she says. “School is a place where young people in care feel normal – they need a peer group.”

The Social Exclusion Unit’s report recommended changes including greater stability, less time out of school, more help with school work and a greater emphasis on health and wellbeing to improve results. But many young people in care have behavioural problems and some are swiftly ejected from schools. For these pupils, the only option is to be educated in a care home environment.

One area determined to do the best for these pupils is Buckinghamshire, where the county council set up an Education of Children in Public Care initiative to raise the educational experiences, opportunities and outcomes of looked-after young people. The initiative uses a joint agency approach, bringing together teachers, social care staff, inclusion and mentoring officers who collaborate to work in the young person’s best interests.

An education welfare officer checks up on each of the authority’s two homes, while a Connexions staff member also visits the young people in its care.

Janice Moloughney, team leader for education of children in public care at Buckinghamshire council, says: “These professionals have regular contact with the homes, while we have increased teaching hours and try to make sure the support is working out.”

Every school in the authority has a designated teacher for young people in care and the homes offer homework clubs. A computer suite has also been established in one of the homes, as well as a study room. As a result of its efforts, the number of care-leavers achieving at least one GCSE has gone up from 36.8 per cent to 66 per cent in the past five years. {mospagebreak}

Private providers are also working on improving standards. One such organisation is Northern Care, which looks after young people with complex needs and challenging behaviour. Most of its teaching is provided on site but Pamela Woods, director of children’s services at Northern Care, says the aim is to get children into mainstream schools because their educational and social needs can be addressed more comprehensively. It is then up to the homes’ teachers to look at other ways of engaging them, she believes.

“We’re moving forward and there’s a growing awareness that we need to raise standards,” she adds. “We use different teaching and learning styles to help young people who have specific difficulties such as dyslexia.”

Raising young people’s self-esteem is another important message and taking exams helps address this. London-based voluntary group Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa helps arrange school placements, supports students in school and employs teachers to work with young people in care, both at school and in care homes. It adopts a tailor-made approach and draws up individual education plans.

Education manager Sarah Gentles encourages all Year 11 students to try for their GCSEs and 41 per cent of young people in its care gain five or more. “GCSEs are the currency of the day and it prejudices young people if they aren’t allowed to take them,” says Gentles. “We celebrate a grade F as much as a B, as it shows that they’ve completed something and they can then build on this success.”

Sixteen-year-old Ben was struggling academically when he arrived at Northern Care’s Piers House home in Blackpool three years ago. Staff at Piers House immediately recognised that Ben was bright, although deputy manager Julian Dale-Hutchinson acknowledged that his self-esteem was low. “We helped build that back up, which made it easier for him to be educated. We also got across that education can be fun,” he says.

This entailed teaching a normal curriculum in a class of five young people, as well as an enriched curriculum including outdoor activities such as canoeing once a week. “We worked on improving his numeracy and literacy,” explains Dale-Hutchinson. “And we aimed to help him take the entrance exam to a local college rather than taking GCSEs as he had fallen so far behind academically.” Ben also concentrated on IT, which he excelled at. He did such a good job that the college advised him to apply for a more challenging course.

Ben is now doing a Gateway to Further Education course at Blackpool and The Fylde College and says he’d like to work in social care. He’s also volunteering as a support worker for young people. “The teaching has been really good here compared with other places I’ve lived,” says Ben. “I feel positive about my plans to become a residential social worker and am working towards doing a health and social care course.”

Young People’s Voices

– My care home teaches real courses, and doesn’t just use workbooks. You get 100 per cent support. I don’t think I would have managed to get to college otherwise – Ben, 16, Blackpool

– I’m doing five GCSEs and my marks have gone up since I’ve been in this home. I want to study carpentry at college and I think I’ll get a place pretty easily – Mark, 16, Buckinghamshire

– School was boring so I walked out. I prefer it here as I study part time and receive one-to-one tuition. I don’t think I’ll pass my two GCSEs though, as they’re too difficult, but I want to go to college and study gardening – Stephen, 15, Buckinghamshire.