Young people, public care and education: some practical lessons from research

1. Young people, public care and education: some practical lessons from research Claire Cameron CYC-Net 21 March 2012

2. Research aims • To track the educational pathways of young men and women in public care after the end of compulsory schooling • To examine how more of them might be encouraged and supported to continue into further and higher education • To compare different systems and experiences in five European countries

3. Project partners England: Institute of Education, University of London (Coordinator) Sweden: Göteborg University (Social Work & Education) Denmark: Danish School of Education, University of Aarhus Spain: Research Institute on Quality of Life, University of Girona Hungary: Institute for Social Policy and Labour, Budapest

4. Research Methods • Literature reviews and analysis of statistics • Surveys: national and local area studies • Interviews with social services, care managers and educators (76) • Screening telephone interviews (366) • Intensive face to face interviews with 170 young men and women aged 18-24 and 108 nominated adults

5. Completion of compulsory schooling (2006)

6. Completion of post-compulsory education (2006)

7. What explanations? • What role does the welfare regime play? • What sustains participation at compulsory school age? • What enables drastic falling off in participation at post-compulsory phase? • Two models • ‘Same as everybody else’ • Residual - targeted interventions

8. Key comparative findings • Outside England, participation in and completed education • Frequently delayed in completion • Outside England, care placements much more stable • Family backgrounds are almost identical • The age of leaving care (16-19) is much lower than the average age of leaving home (24/25) • Informal learning, social life, voluntary work, more common in England than elsewhere

9. Solutions that seem to work • Continuing and unconditional personal support beyond compulsory education age • Well educated workers – pedagogues – in residential settings in Spain, Denmark, Hungary • Second foster placements • Leaving care teams, especially with teacher attached • Easy financial access to higher education for all – Sweden • Supporting development of strong learning identity • Promoting citizenship – volunteering, social networks

10. Practical initiatives in the residual model • Leaving care teams • Multi-disciplinary • Holistic - practical and emotional support • Help not perceived as control • Targets focus minds • Virtual school heads • Resources and mentoring • Data collection

11. Embedded teacher model • From 1 – 18 young people at university • Direct help and advice on educational matters • Negotiates educationally valuable work placements • Low expectations and limited horizons from childhood • ‘I’ve never met a child that didn’t want to learn. How do we turn a six year old who wants to know about everything into a 16 year old who can’t be bothered with anything?’

12. Conclusions • Widespread neglect of educational fortunes for young people from public care • Young people in Social Democratic states were better supported than elsewhere • Targeted interventions can be successful – but are they sustainable? • Requires ‘educational mindedness’ of policy, concepts and expectations held by professionals – social pedagogy?

13. References • Yippee website: http:/tcru.ioe.ac.uk/yippee • Cameron, C., Jackson,S., Hollingworth, K., Hauari, H., (2012) Continuing educational participation among children in care in five countries: some issues of social class, Journal of Education Policy • Cameron, C. (forthcoming) “Our young people are worse”: Family backgrounds and placement options in public care systems, European Journal of Social Work • Jackson, S. and Cameron, C. (forthcoming) Looking Ahead and Aiming Higher Children and Youth Services Review