Sonia Jackson - Improving Access to Further and Higher Education for Young People in Public Care

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IMPROVING ACCESS TO
FURTHER AND HIGHER
EDUCATION FOR YOUNG
PEOPLE IN PUBLIC CARE

European Policy and Practice

SONIA JACKSON and
CLAIRE CAMERON

Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia

First published in 2014

by Jessica Kingsley Publishers

73 Collier Street

London N1 9BE, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.jkp.com

Copyright for all chapters excluding Sonia Jackson and Claire Cameron 2014

Sonia Jackson and Claire Cameron 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a license issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Jackson, Sonia.

Improving the participation of young people in care in further and higher education : European research and practice / Sonia Jackson and Claire Cameron.

pages cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84905-366-2

1. Youth with social disabilities--Education (Higher)--Europe--Cross-cultural studies. 2. Children--Institutional care--Europe--Cross-cultural studies. 3. Compensatory education--Europe--Cross-cultural studies. 4. Educational equalization--Europe--Cross-cultural studies. I. Cameron, Claire. II. Title.

LC4096.A2J33 2014

378.19826942094--dc23

2013047028

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84905 366 2

eISBN 978 0 85700 741 4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book documents the findings of an international collaboration to investigate the educational pathways of young people who had lived in public care in Europe. The project, known by its acronym, YiPPEE, was funded by the European Unions (EU) Seventh Framework Programme between 2008 and 2010 and was coordinated from the Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. The collaboration proved illuminating and rewarding, and we would like to thank all the researchers, administrators and the EUs scientific officer, Marc Goffart, who supported the process of producing the most comprehensive study to date of the educational fortunes of this group of young people. Participating researchers and institutions were: Inge M. Bryderup and Marlene Quisgaard Trentel, Danish Pedagogical University, Denmark; Marta Korintus, Andrea Rcz and Robert Csk, National Institute for Family and Social Policy, Hungary; Ferran Casas, Carme Monserrat Boada and Sara Malo, Research Institute on Quality of Life, University of Girona; Ingrid Hjer and Helena Johansson, Department of Social Work, and Margreth Hill, Department of Education, University of Gteborg, Sweden. The researchers in England, at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, were Hanan Hauari, Katie Hollingworth and Meli Glenn. We are very grateful to our ever-helpful administrator, Michele Cage. Most of all, we would like to thank the many young people, and professionals, who readily took part and volunteered their time and reflections in all five countries.

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

INTRODUCTION

The education of children and young people in state care is a subject that has attracted very little attention in the past. Because they make up less than 1 per cent of the school population in most countries, educationists have not identified them as a group requiring special attention. On the other hand, social care professionals have generally not seen promoting the educational attainment of children in care as a significant aspect of their role. In fact there is much evidence that the school experience and educational progress of children looked after away from home has been grossly neglected (Hjer
et al. 2008; Jackson 2007a; Jackson 2010; Cherry 2013; Jackson and Hjer 2013).

Over the past 30 years, especially in the UK, there has been growing concern about this issue, and a small but steady stream of research stimulating some action by national and local government. Almost all of this has been concentrated on children of statutory school age, 516, although in all European countries over 80 per cent of young people now continue in full-time education at least up to the age of 17 and over 60 per cent of those aged 2024 are enrolled in tertiary education (Eurostat 2013).

This book reports on findings from a major European research project which had the overall aim of increasing the participation of young people looked after away from home in post-compulsory and higher education. The project was called Young People in Public Care: Pathways to Education in Europe (YiPPEE). It is the first ever cross-national study focused on the education of young people in care beyond the legal age of school attendance.

The idea for the study arose from Sonia Jacksons previous research on going to university from care, the By Degrees project (Jackson, Ajayi and children would leave school as soon as they were legally allowed to do so.

At that time the proportion of care leavers going to university was estimated to be only one in a hundred (Social Exclusion Unit 2003). Thanks partly to greater awareness of the issue raised by the By Degrees research and to the energetic promotion of its findings by the main funding body, the childrens charity Buttle UK, that figure has now risen to 7 per cent, but it is still far below the percentage in the general population (AcSS 2013; Budge 2011; Buttle UK 2013). A preliminary literature search by the present authors found no evidence at all on the education of young people in care or care leavers between the ages of 16 and 19.