Children and Young People 'Looked After'?

Education, Intervention and the Everyday Culture of Care in Wales

Dawn Mannay,Louise Roberts,Alyson Rees

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781786833570
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Studien über Kinder in der Soziologie

Despite a proliferation of legislative action in response to differential outcomes, the relative educational, employment and lifecourse disadvantages of individuals who have experienced the care system remains a pressing issue of widespread international concern. In Wales, a significant body of work has been produced on and with care-experienced children and young people. This edited collection attempts to highlight these valuable insights in a single volume, with contributions from well-established and early career scholars working in different traditions – including education, psychology, policy studies, sociology and social work – to provide a unique opportunity for reflection across disciplinary boundaries and shed new light on common problems and opportunities stimulated by research in the field of social care. The volume introduces a range of contexts and sites – including the home, the school, alternative educational institutions, contact centres, and the natural environment – and reflexively explores changes and continuities within the political and geographical landscape that constitutes Wales. Each chapter introduces insights, reflections and recommendations about the care system and its impacts, which will be useful for readers across geographical contexts who are concerned with improving the lives of children, young people and wider family networks.

1 | Introduction

Dawn Mannay, Alyson Rees and Louise Roberts

Setting the scene

THIS OPENING CHAPTER provides the reader with an insight into the rationale for bringing together this edited collection, Children and Young People ‘Looked After’? Education, Intervention and the Everyday Culture of Care in Wales. It sets out the aims and scope of the volume, as well as providing an overview of the following chapters and the ways in which they connect to the core themes of education, social policy, practice, research, and the everyday lives of care-experienced children and young people in the Welsh context.

All researchers have stories to tell about why they chose to research particular topics, and the book’s editors have been involved in work with children and young people in the care system and care leavers, linked with academic research, consultations, teaching and social work practice (Mannay et al., 2015, 2017; Pithouse and Rees, 2014; Roberts, 2017; Roberts et al., 2016, 2017). This experience has engendered an admiration for the care-experienced populations we have encountered, and, at the same time, a disappointment that, despite social research and policy interventions, they are faced with pervasive educational and social inequalities, which can have consequences for their transitions to the workplace and their sense of security, self and ongoing stability.

A range of valuable work has been undertaken across the United Kingdom, for example, in England (Berridge, 2012; Diaz, 2018; Kenny, 2018; Morriss, 2018; O’Higgins et al., 2015; Sebba et al., 2015; Stein, 2006; Woodhouse, 2018), Scotland (Aldgate and McIntosh, 2006; Hill, 2011), and Northern Ireland (Fargas Malet et al., 2014). Additionally, there has been a sustained international interest in the educational experiences of and outcomes for care-experienced children and young people (see Benbenishty and Zeira, 2012; Brady and Gilligan, 2018; Jackson and Cameron, 2010; Matheson, 2015; Nho et al., 2017). In Wales, there has also been a significant body of work undertaken on, and with, care-experienced children and young people, and this edited collection is an attempt to draw together and showcase these insights in one volume, to consolidate this empirical and methodological knowledge base.

In this collection, we engage with the accounts of researchers working in different traditions, including education, psychology, policy studies, sociology and social work. The volume therefore brings together distinct scholarly traditions, providing an opportunity for reflection across disciplinary boundaries, and shedding new light on common problems and opportunities stimulated by research in the field of social care. The volume also introduces a range of contexts and sites, such as the home, the school, contact centres, educational institutions, and the natural environment. In exposing readers to these different disciplinary practices and research contexts, we hope to encourage them to reflect on how this knowledge can inform their own fields of interest.

We have three main aims in this volume. To this end, we have divided the book into three sections, each hosting five chapters, which respectively deal with education and policy interventions, the lived experiences of care-experienced children and young people, and research methodologies. These themes are inevitably interrelated, but shifting the focus to each aspect has enabled an emphasis on specific elements of the care system. The book aims to provide the reader with an in-depth understanding of all of these important areas, to sketch out a picture of key studies, approaches and recommendations in the contemporary Welsh landscape, and, at the same time, to offer fundamental insights that will be useful for a more international readership.

As documented in the rest of this chapter, each section offers contributions from scholars with a genuine commitment to improving policy, practice and research. The authors also share a respect for the views of children and young people in care. For this reason, we have not used the term ‘looked after children’ in the abbreviated form LAC. Despite its use in policy documents and related publications more widely, its association with the word ‘lack’ is problematic – ‘young people do not like being referred to as “LAC” as they are not “lacking” in anything’ (Children’s Commissioner for Wales, 2017, p. 11). Accordingly, this edited collection focuses on what can be done to best support care-experienced children and young people, from the perspective that they are unique individuals with the abilities, aspirations and attributes to forge successful and fulfilling futures.

Education and policy intervention

Within Wales, the United Kingdom, and internationally children and young people in care achieve poorer educational outcomes compared to individuals not in care (Jackson and Cameron, 2014; Mannay et al., 2015; O’Higgins et al., 2015; Sebba et al., 2015). Since devolution, in 1999, the Welsh Government has advanced a number of targeted educational approaches, with existing provisions being summarised in the current strategy for the education of children in care in Wales (Welsh Government, 2016). Educational attainment is not the only predictor of success (Berridge, 2012), nonetheless, poor educational outcomes can have serious consequences for future life chances of care-experienced children and young people (Jackson, 1994). This is particularly salient in the landscape of a competitive employment economy, which places a central significance on the importance of qualifications (Brown et al., 2013). Consequently, this opening section is interested in setting a context for the background of the care population in Wales, and then charting research that explores educational experiences, outcomes, and the interventions put in place that seek to alleviate the educational disadvantages experienced by children and young people in care.

It is important to establish a broader picture of the ‘looked after’ population in the Welsh context. Accordingly, this section begins with a chapter from Martin Elliott titled ‘Charting the rise of children and young people looked after in Wales’. The numbers of applications through the law courts to place children in Wales in out-of-home care have illustrated an unprecedented rise, leading to the claim that children in Wales are now one-and-a-half times more likely to become ‘looked-after’ than those in England (Drakeford, 2012). These increases have a significant impact on services, and the quality of care and education for children and young people. Accordingly, Elliott presents an analysis of large-scale quantitative data sets to offer a more nuanced understanding of this changing landscape, at the level of the nation, and more locally in relation to the differential patterns illustrated between Local Authorities within Wales.

The following chapter, ‘Educational interventions for children and young people in care: A review of outcomes, implementation and acceptability’ offers the reader an evaluation of educational interventions and their measurable impacts. Gwyther Rees, Rachel Brown, Phil Smith and Rhiannon Evans reviewed the best available evidence on interventions intended to improve educational outcomes for children and young people who have resided in care. The authors’ systematic review identified 15 evaluations reporting on 12 interventions, including the Letterbox Club and Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Adolescents (MTFC-A). The chapter demonstrates that the current evidence base is mixed, with existing evaluations being the subject of numerous methodological limitations; and the authors argue that future research must focus on developing theoretically sound interventions that maximise the likelihood of demonstrating effects.

Rebecca Pratchett and Paul Rees then consider the experiences of a particular section of the ‘looked after’ population. ‘Exploring the educational attainment and achievement of children who are “looked after” in formal kinship care’, reports on their work with a group of children in formal kinship care aged eight to 18, from two local authorities in south Wales. The evidence base on educational outcomes for children and young people in kinship care remains limited (Leslie et al., 2005), and this chapter makes an important contribution to considering the literacy and numeracy skills of children in ‘formal kinship care’ settings. The authors suggest that kinship carers’ access to birth parents and the continuity afforded by kinship care may have the potential to compensate for other disadvantages that are sometimes observed in care placements; and that this is an important area for further exploration.

This emphasis on the potential for good educational outcomes also features in the chapter, ‘Promoting the education of children in care: Reflections of children and carers who have experienced “success”’. In this chapter, Paul Rees and Amy Munro move away from an emphasis on poor attainment and instead consider how ‘success’ can be defined and promoted. Reflecting on a study involving children and young people in care in one local authority in Wales, and their carers, Rees and Munro examine what ‘success’ and ‘happiness’ means for these participants. Children and young people discussed the positive effects of ongoing birth-family contact, open, warm and respectful relationships with carers and the carers’ family, positive friendships with peers, basic needs being met, partaking in hobbies and interests, and having someone to talk to and share problems with. For Rees and Munro, ‘success’ for children and young people in care can only be achieved through an holistic understanding of their needs, and this can only be realised if those who live and work alongside them share a common language and understanding.

In ‘Transitions from care to higher education: A case study of a young person’s journey’, Gemma Allnatt also focuses on ‘success’ in relation to care-experienced young people who gain a place in university. Allnatt draws on a wider study with twenty-one young people, which considered how support from social services and universities helps those in care to complete their university studies. The study explored participants’ subjective views of their journey through the care system and to university. The case study presented in the chapter touches on themes that were common across the sample such as traumatic childhood events, overcoming significant hurdles to get to university and succeed, and continuing chaos and turmoil in personal circumstances. Allnatt provides a convincing argument that current systems of support for students are often disorganised and inadequate, so that the relative ‘success’ of those who prosper in higher education is often in spite of, and not because of, the help that is made available.

The culture of care and the everyday lives of children and young people

The chapters in this section all draw from empirical research findings. However, rather than a specific focus on education and policy intervention, there is an interest in the more mundane aspects of everyday life and the salience of relational encounters. The chapters all emphasise the profound significance of children’s and young people’s family and non-family relationships on their lived experiences, development and well-being. Examining how the ordinary becomes troubled and the extraordinary normalised (Gillies et al., 2013), the chapters move across the spaces of the ‘home’, the contact centre, the natural environment and life course transitions. The authors’ present problematic accounts, while at the same time offering a range of nuanced insights that can be drawn upon to improve the lives, and futures, of care-experienced children and young people.

The first space explored is the foster home in Alyson Rees’, ‘The daily lived experiences of foster care: the centrality of food and touch in family life’. Focusing specifically on children’s and young people’s experiences, Rees documents the mundane, often overlooked, yet important spaces of interaction and everyday rituals within the home, including touch, food and other practices related to physical nurturing. The home is often seen as a type of sanctuary, which is particularly impervious to forms of research inquiry (Lincoln, 2012; Mannay, 2018), however, in engaging with care-experienced participants, Rees was able to perceive this familiar yet unknown space of ‘home’. The risk of abuse allegations mean that the importance of closeness and touch, as a means of reassurance to children within social care relationships, is often devalued (Biehal, 2014). However, Rees clearly illustrates the ways in which these relational aspects are significant in fostering, helping to create, and maintain, a sense of value and belonging for children and young people in care.

In ‘The natural environment and its benefits for children and young people looked after’, Holly Gordon moves beyond the enclosed space of the home to consider the benefits of outdoor spaces. The chapter reflects on the ‘Fostering Outside Play’ project, which aimed to improve the mental and physical well-being of children and young people looked after by supporting foster carers and practitioners to provide them with opportunities for play in the natural environment. Drawing on accounts from foster carers, Gordon argues that the natural environment can engender benefits for care-experienced children and young people, and that the potential of this under-used resource deserves further discussion, research and development within social care services for children.

Joanne Pye and Paul Rees return to a more confined setting in their chapter, ‘Factors that promote positive supervised birth family contact for children in care’. Supervised contact between children and their birth parents involves other groups, including carers, contact supervisors, and social workers. The chapter explores questionnaire and interview data generated with these key stakeholders, who were involved with the process at a single contact centre in south Wales. Pye and Rees contend that effective communication and relationships supported the promotion of positive supervised contact, but that these were often disrupted by the nature of the tightly controlled environment, a lack of understanding of the process, inappropriate and unrealistic arrangements, and inaccurate or inadequate knowledge around the prescribed roles, related responsibilities and expectations. The chapter underlines the importance of promoting positive contact rather than contact per se, and offers a series of recommendations to inform and improve current practice.

‘Yet another change: The experience of movement for children and young people looked after’, by Rebecca Girling, considers the impacts of stability and transience. Girling conducted interviews with young people aged between 15 and 17, in private residential homes in Wales, which reflected on their care journeys. Movement and change are part of the culture of care and play a significant role in shaping children’s and young people’s life experiences. However, Girling’s findings illustrate the ways in which change can create a sense of psychological instability alongside the physical movement. For Girling, relationships are key in creating a sense of stability and belonging, or extenuating instability, and she recommends that more attention is given to the relational aspects of placements to improve the chance of success in other areas of vulnerable children’s and young people’s lives.

In Wales, five times as many young people in state care become pregnant compared to the general population of under-18-year-olds in Wales (Craine et al., 2014), and Louise Roberts considers early parenthood for young people in and leaving state care. ‘“A family of my own”: When young people in and leaving state care become parents in Wales’ draws from qualitative interviews with parents and leaving care professionals to explore these transitions. Young motherhood is often a source of pride and respect marking an important transition to adulthood (Gillies, 2007). However, the chapter illustrates how this becomes contaminated for care-experienced parents, who can be stigmatised as a result of their care status and assigned a presumed incompetency. Roberts argues that young people in and leaving care face significant barriers as they transition to parenthood, and that these require effective systems of support, rather than discourses of judgement, to prevent cycles of intergenerational care experience; and enable young people to have a family of their own.

Participatory, qualitative and collaborative approaches

As the chapters in the two preceding sections document, insights into policy and practice can be attained through in-depth qualitative interviews, detailed attention to patterns in data, and systematic reviews of existing studies. Additionally, research with children and young people in the care system, care leavers and those who foster and adopt can also provide useful insights into the associated challenges, successes and everyday realities of participants. The findings of these projects often offer new knowledge and perspectives; however, the research process, not simply its output, is an important area for consideration. Consequently, this section is interested in the ‘doing’ of research, in particular methodological approaches that work directly with participants and involve participatory, qualitative, reflexive and collaborative techniques.

The relationship between researcher and researched is key to the effective data production (Pole, 2007). Accordingly, in the opening chapter Claire Palmer builds on earlier work stressing the importance of ‘locating the self’ (Coffey, 1999, p.17), and reflects on relationality and positionality in the research process. ‘Positionality and reflexivity: Conducting qualitative interviews with parents who adopt children from foster care’, draws on a larger Welsh cohort study focusing on children who are placed for adoption. The chapter reflects on a qualitative aspect of the study that explored the motivations of parents who adopt older children and the processes by which they decided to adopt. Methodological considerations arising from interviewing adoptive parents are discussed, providing the reader with important insights including the impact of the researcher on the setting, the emotional impact of conducting a study, and how researchers can be affected by the process of exploring sensitive topics in the field of social care.

‘Sandboxes, stickers and superheroes: Employing creative techniques to explore the aspirations and experiences of children and young people who are looked after’, by Dawn Mannay and Eleanor Staples, also considers fieldwork relationships. The authors argue that traditional interview techniques in the social sciences can inadvertently mirror social work practice, and document their introduction of creative methods to enable a more participatory research encounter. Focusing on the technique of sandboxing and emotion sticker activities, Mannay and Staples reflect on how providing participants with the opportunity to lead research activities through the creation and discussion of visual artefacts created a more neutral space where children and young people could engage with research on their own terms. The chapter does not present these techniques as a panacea for shifting hierarchical power relations in the field. However, it does illustrate the ways in which this approach can enable children and young people in care to both communicate their subjective experiences, and offer concrete suggestions for improving their educational trajectories.

In the following chapter, ‘A view from a Pupil Referral Unit: Using partici...