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Continuing Concerns

Care Matters: Transforming Lives – Improving Outcomes Conference Incorporating the 8 th International Looking After Children Conference Keble College, Oxford, UK, 7 - 9 July 2008. Continuing Concerns. Better Futures?

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Continuing Concerns

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  1. Care Matters: Transforming Lives – Improving Outcomes Conference Incorporating the 8th International Looking After Children Conference Keble College, Oxford, UK, 7 - 9 July 2008 Continuing Concerns

  2. Better Futures? Experience and Outcomes of Children and Young People in Residential Care Andy Kendrick

  3. Continuing Concerns • Historical Abuse Systemic Review • Poor practice in residential child care • Headline figures of poor outcomes of children leaving residential care

  4. Issues of Comparison • Very different use of residential care across Europe / internationally • On the Margin – Scotland and Finland • Twice as many children in residential care in Finland • Finland – high proportion very young children • Scotland – larger numbers of children locked up • IoE study – England, Germany, Denmark • Under-16s not at school - E (12%), G & D (2%) • Over-16s not in education or employment – E (55%), G (23%), D (5%) • Rate of offences – E (1.73), D (0.158), G (0.092)

  5. Care Leavers in Scotland • Almost all had moved on by 18, two-thirds by 16 • Less than 30% had qualifications • High levels of unemployment • Three-quarters had moved accommodation in the 12 months after leaving care (average 5 moves) (Dixon, 2008)

  6. Use of Residential Care Study of 22 care homes in 6 local authorities – 215 children • 24% of children under 12 years old • Majority of admissions unplanned • 44% of placements planned return home • 34% of placements lasted less than 1 week • 61% of placements achieved aims; 24% partly achieved (Milligan, Hunter & Kendrick, 2006)

  7. 6-year comparison of children who return home in the USA Follow up of 149 children in ‘foster care’ – 63 returned home • Children who returned home reported more: • Lifetime risk behaviours • Self-destructive behaviours • Substance use • Delinquent behaviours • Negative life course outcomes • Arrests/tickets • Dropped out of school • Received lower grades • Current sympomatology problems • Internalizing behaviour • Total behaviour problems • Total confidence (Taussig, Clyman & Landsverk, 2001)

  8. Education of care leavers

  9. Factors in quality residential care • Clear Roles and Objectives • Congruence in Values and Goals • Leadership styles • Strong staff culture • Stability • Formal and informal personal support

  10. Reviews and Meta-analyses Focus on: • social skills / social competence • family focused work • behaviour modification programmes • after care and ‘step down’ approaches • relationships

  11. Preference for Residential Care • Worth recalling that research studies have shown that young people can prefer residential child care • Sinclair and Gibbs (1998) interviewed 223 children in residential care • ‘even those with experience of foster care chose residential care in preference to it by a ratio of three to one’ (p. 46)

  12. Preference for Residential Care Celebrating Success We met a number of participants who had experienced feeling accepted, secure and a sense of belonging in residential care. In the best experiences, participants thought of their residential carers as a kind of family… What often characterised the positive relationships in residential care was the continuing sense of security and safety, which could be relied on. (Happer, MacCreadie and Aldgate 2006, p.17)

  13. References • Cameron, C. & Boddy, J. (2007) Staffing, training and recruitment: Outcomes for young people in residential care in three countries. In Kendrick, A. (2007) Residential Child Care: Prospects and Challenges. London: Jessica Kingsley • Dixon, J. (2007) Young people leaving residential care: Experiences and outcomes. In Kendrick, A. (2007) Residential Child Care: Prospects and Challenges. London: Jessica Kingsley • Happer, H., MacCreadie, J. & Aldgate, J. (2006) Celebrating Success: What Helps Looked After Children Succeed. Edinburgh: Social Work Inspection Agency. • Francis, J., Kendrick, A. & Poso, T. (2007) On the margin: Residential child care in Scotland and Finland. European Journal of Social Work. 10(3), 337-352. • Kendrick, A. (2008) Residential Child Care: Prospects and Challenges. London: Jessica Kingsley • Knorth, E.J., Harder, A.T., Zandberg, T. & Kendrick, A.J., Under one roof: A review and selective meta-analysis on the outcomes of residential child and youth care, Children and Youth Services Review (2007), doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2007.09.001 • Milligan, I., Hunter, L. & Kendrick, A. (2006) Current Trends in the Use of Residential Child Care in Scotland. Glasgow: SIRCC. • Sinclair, I. & Gibbs, I. (1998) Children’s Homes: A Study in Diversity. London: Wiley • Taussig, .N., Clyman, R.B. & Landsverk, J. (2001) Children who return home from foster care: A 6-year prospective study of behavioural health outcomes in adolescence. Pediatrics, 108, e10

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