The Education of Children and Young People in State Care

Sonia Jackson, Ingrid Hojer

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138934863
• eBook ISBN: 9781317388999
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Health Care Delivery

Young people who leave care with few or no educational qualifications are at very high risk of social exclusion in adulthood. Yet in the past their education has attracted little attention from researchers or professionals. Studies by the editors and contributors to this volume show that the educational standards attained by young people in care fall progressively behind those of their peers living with their own families. This research-based book looks at the educational experiences of children and youths in nine different European countries and Canada. It identifies the obstacles that prevent them from realising their aspirations and discusses ways of improving their opportunities.

How can countries with different traditions, welfare regimes and administrative systems learn from each other? What needs to be done at national, local and individual levels to give children in care equal chances with those living with their families? At present a child in public care is five times less likely to go to university than others. How can teachers, social workers and carers better support their educational attainment, and enable more of them to succeed and progress to tertiary education? This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Social Work.

Delayed educational pathways and risk of social exclusion: the case of young people from public care in Spain

Retraso en los itinerarios educativos y riesgo de exclusión social: el caso de los jóvenes ex-tutelados en España

Carme Montserrat, Ferran Casas & Sara Malo

It is assumed that education may be one of the key aspects in preventing social exclusion and that children in both residential and family foster care would seem to be at risk of exclusion due to unequal opportunities in compulsory and post-compulsory education, particularly when leaving care. On the basis of findings from a European research project, this article examines the educational pathways in Spain among 18–22 year olds who were in care at 16. The qualitative results presented here were taken from initial and follow-up interviews with young people from a public care background, interviews with care managers and nominated adults—mainly social educators. Results showed that delays in educational pathways were frequent among these young people, even those who showed educational promise and were highly motivated. Factors associated with such delays were related to (1) professionals and managers in the child protection system not prioritising their education; (2) low expectations among adults providing them with support; (3) invisibility within the educational system of the specific support needs of this population and (4) additional difficulties this population encounters in the transition to adulthood. If policies are to be developed to address all of the above factors, it is crucial to assess what urgent changes are required to empower the potential human and social capital of this population, increase equality in their educational opportunities and reduce their high risk of social exclusion.

Se asume que la educación constituye uno de los aspectos clave en la prevención de la exclusión social, y que los niños, tanto en acogimiento residencial y como familiar, parecen estar en riesgo de exclusión debido a la desigualdad de oportunidades educativas, tanto en la escolaridad obligatoria como postobligatoria, y especialmente cuando salen del sistema de protección. A partir de los resultados de un proyecto europeo de investigación, este trabajo examina los itinerarios educativos de una muestra de jóvenes entre los 18–22 años de edad que estaban tutelados a los 16 años. Se presentan los resultados cualitativos, centrados en España, fruto de las entrevistas realizadas a los jóvenes, los profesionales y los adultos de referencia—principalmente educadores sociales. Estos resultados muestran que los retrasos en los itinerarios educativos son frecuentes entre estos jóvenes, incluso en aquellos que presentan capacidad y alta motivación para seguir estudiando. Los factores asociados con los retrasos están relacionados con (1) la poca prioridad que dan a la escolaridad los profesionales y directivos en el sistema de protección a la infancia, (2) las bajas expectativas que los adultos tienen en los niños y adolescentes tutelados, (3) la invisibilidad en el sistema educativo de las necesidades específicas de apoyo que tiene esta población, y (4) las dificultades adicionales que estos jóvenes encuentran en su transición hacia la edad adulta. Para el desarrollo de políticas que tengan en cuenta estos factores obstaculizadores, es crucial empezar a valorar qué cambios deben implementarse con urgencia de cara a potenciar el capital humano y social de esta población, aumentar la igualdad en sus oportunidades educativas y reducir el alto riesgo de exclusión social.

Introduction

We know very little about the situation of children and adolescents in the Spanish protection system when it comes to their schooling. We know even less about the educational pathways these young people follow after leaving the protection system, and almost nothing about the factors underlying this population subgroup’s dropping out of school and low academic achievements.

Jackson (2010a) points out how the issue of school was ignored for decades by most European protection (child welfare) systems. In Spain, the principle of normalisation applied (Casas, 1998) from the 1980s onwards led to the disappearance of macro-institutions in the transition to democracy, resulting in children receiving their education at state schools or state-subsidised private schools, away from the residential home. Perhaps a further step—and the most important one—was still missing, however, providing the education system with tools to promote the integration of these children so that taking schooling outside the residential home would not mean the protection system washing its hands of responsibility in this area. In fact, it is common to hear professionals in the protection system attributing sole responsibility to the school when it comes to education, and the schools attributing sole responsibility to the protection services for meeting the specific educational needs of these young people.

The lack of published data when it comes to educational results, referred to by some authors as ‘statistical invisibility’ (Casas, 1998; Casas & Montserrat, 2009), has contributed to keeping this reality hidden and also, therefore, to neither side implementing programmes due to lack of awareness of the ‘problem’.

Data from the UK (Cameron et al., 2011) show that the percentage of young people in the protection system who complete secondary education is only 41.2%, compared to 90.5% of the general population.

In Catalonia (Montserrat, Casas, et al., 2010), the rate for those students passing secondary education at 15 is 69.4% among the general population, compared to 31.7% of the care population (Table 1), significant differences being observed between those at a residential home and those in non-kinship foster care and kinship foster care. Difficulties at school, both social and academic, are also highlighted in other Spanish studies (Del Valle et al., 2009; Martín et al., 2008), particularly for not only those in residential care, but also those in foster care.

Data are available from Denmark (Bryderup et al., 2010) for not only the level of education achieved by young people between the ages of 18 and 22 who have left care, but also their level of education when aged between 27 and 30; post-compulsory upper secondary education (equivalent to Bachillerato or initial vocational training courses) was completed by only 2.5% in the 18–22 age range and 30.8% in the 27–30 age range, compared to 37.6 and 46.1% of the general population. With regard to further education, only 7.3% of young people aged 27–30 who had passed through the protection system had completed it, compared to 34.7% of the general population.

Table 1. Percentages of Students Passing Secondary Education at 15

		Care population (n = 265)
	General population	Residential home	Kinship family	Non-kinship family
Percentages of students passing secondary education at 15	69.4	23.4	45.5	40.0
			31.7

Note: 2009–2010 school year.

In Sweden (Hojer & Johansson, 2010), 38% of young people leaving care completed post-compulsory upper secondary education, compared to 85% of the general population.

There has been a recent suspicion that these isolated data for different countries may prove to be very similar if obtained for all countries. Studies show that among all of the social groups identified, young people leaving care are most likely to experience teenage pregnancy, health problems and delinquency (Jackson, 2010b), all situations associated with a lack of employment and dependency on the welfare services. The study Evaluation of Formal Training (2001–2008) compiled by the Higher Council for the Evaluation of Education in Catalonia (2010) suggests that labour market integration for Vocational Training graduates (five years after finishing their studies) is between 11 and 20% higher than for those who did not continue their studies; income is also between 23 and 28% higher.

It is vital to identify the factors influencing why young people entering the care system after significantly falling behind at school not only do not manage to compensate for their delays or deficits, but why these often become worse as they pass through the system (O’Sullivan & Westerman, 2007; Casas et al., 2010).

Studies by Stein and Munro (2008), and others conducted in Spain by Montserrat and Casas (2010), Del Valle et al. (2003) and García Barriocanal et al. (2007), highlight those factors which facilitate and hinder social integration for these young people when they leave the system and continue with their process of independence. The stability they enjoyed in the protection system, support services for those leaving care, the involvement of a tutor and a social support network, mainly comprising friends, present themselves as the most facilitating factors. Labelling and stigmatisation processes (Casas et al., 2000), as well as low expectations of them, which among the general population may even lead to them being considered potential offenders or abusers, or in the best case scenario, only being expected to become unqualified workers, are the factors which pose an obstacle to their social integration.

In their studies into foster care, Colton et al. (2004) point out that for young people, entering the protection system means beginning to participate in a school drop-out culture. According to these authors, school is one of the aspects of their lives in which it is most essential to maintain continuity in the relationship with teachers and friends, class attendance, not falling behind academically and so on, issues which must be taken more into account by social and child protection services. A further key issue is to study and assess the quality of care received by foster children, in order to determine how this affects their well-being. Most studies indicate that the childcare population suffer higher rates of emotional, social, behavioural and school problems than the general population (Rutter, 2000). Various authors agree in considering school to be one of the most relevant aspects in the present and future well-being and quality of life among those who have been in the protection system (Shlonsky & Berrick, 2001; Hunt, 2003).

The data presented here, taken from a sample in Catalonia, w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: Prioritising education for children looked after away from home
• 1. Delayed educational pathways and risk of social exclusion: the case of young people from public care in Spain
• 2. School as an opportunity and resilience factor for young people placed in care
• 3. The importance of social relationships for young people from a public care background
• 4. Enabling young people with a care background to stay in education in Hungary: accommodation with conditions and support
• 5. Placement, protective and risk factors in the educational success of young people in care: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses
• 6. Addressing low attainment of children in public care: the Scottish experience
• 7. The managerialist turn and the education of young offenders in state care
• 8. Action competence—a new trial aimed at social innovation in residential homes?
• 9. The relevance and experience of education from the perspective of Croatian youth in-care
• Index