The Educational Needs Of Children And Young People In Out Of Home Care

Child abuse is typically considered to be the most severe form of early adversity to which children or adolescents can be subjected. Maltreated young people seen as at the highest risk are likely to be placed in out-of-home care for their own protection, including foster care, kinship care, group care, or independent living. Young People in Out-of-Home Care is based on more than two decades of applied research and evaluation, conducted since 2000, as part of the ongoing Ontario Looking After Children (OnLAC) Project. The OnLAC project was based on a new child welfare approach known as Looking After Children, developed in the UK in the late 1980s and 1990s, to reform and improve services to vulnerable young people who were being looked after in out-of-home care. When launched in 2000, the OnLAC project “Canadianized” the UK approach and partnered with the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS) and some 20 children’s aid societies in the province. Since 2007, the Ontario government has mandated that local societies use the OnLAC method to plan services and monitor outcomes. Since 2000, the Ontario Looking After Children (OnLAC) project has gathered information on results and well-being from interviews with more than 35,000 young people in care, their caregivers, and their child welfare workers. Young People in Out- of-Home Care presents major project findings and lessons that promise to improve young people’s education, development, health, social and family relationships, mental health, and preparation for transition to community life.

This book draws together for the first time some of the most important international policy practice and research relating to education in out-of-home care. It addresses the knowledge gap around how good learning experiences can enrich and add enjoyment to the lives of children and young people as they grow and develop. Through its ecological-development lens it focuses sharply on the experience of learning from early childhood to tertiary education. It offers empirical insights and best practices examples of learning and caregiving contexts with children and young people in formal learning settings, at home and in the community. This book is highly relevant for education and training programs in pedagogy, psychology, social work, youth work, residential care, foster care and kinship care along with early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary education courses.

This book challenges and revises existing ways of thinking about leaving care policy, practice and research at regional, national and international levels. Bringing together contributors from fifteen countries, it covers a range of topical policy and practice issues within national, international or comparative contexts. These include youth justice, disability, access to higher education, the role of advocacy groups, ethical challenges and cultural factors. In doing so it demonstrates that, whilst young people are universally a vulnerable group, there are vast differences in their experiences of out-of-home care and transitions from care, and their shorter and longer-term outcomes. Equally, there are significant variations between jurisdictions in terms of the legislative, policy and practice supports and opportunities made available to them. This significant edited collection is essential reading for all those who work with young people from care, including social workers, counsellors, and youth and community practitioners, as well as for students and scholars of child welfare.

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.

This study sets out to scrutinize to what extent the needs of children in four different European regions are similar.

Children and young people in care rarely match the academic achievements of their peers and policy and procedures to address this inequality have not yet remedied the problem. Drawing on ideas from social pedagogy, the authors present a new approach - learning placements and caring schools. They show that education and care must be considered integral to both out of home placements and schools. Packed with practice examples, it includes chapters on early childhood education and care, as well as alternatives to school and higher education, covering everything from birth up to the age of 25. It highlights the potential benefits of a range of learning opportunities, from drama and outdoor activities, to bedtime stories and mentoring as well as providing support for teachers in their role as carer. Chapters include key points, case studies, practice points and useful resources. This is a unique evidence-informed practical guide for students and professionals in the fields of social work, social care, psychology and education.

This literature review, brings together evidence from British research, policy, and practice regarding how children and young people in public care fare within the education system. The review suggests that many of the barriers to educational progress lie in the social work and education systems and their interaction, and argues that increased understanding by professionals of each other's perspectives and active collaboration at all levels is vital. Key topics considered in the review include: (1) the characteristics and circumstances of children in care; (2) the evidence that they underachieve at school; (3) ways in which the care and education systems impact on children's educational experience; (4) specialist education and residential schools; and (5) collaboration between departments of social work and education, including examples of special initiatives or services. The review's final chapter summarizes key points and identifies some of the main factors that may promote or impede progress. Gaps in current knowledge and understanding are also highlighted. Contains approximately 250 references. (EV)