CELCIS’ education work
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This document discusses looked after children in Scotland and their educational outcomes. It provides statistics showing that looked after children have lower educational attainment and attendance than children not in care. The document defines corporate parenting as organizations ensuring the rights and wellbeing of looked after children. It lists corporate parenting duties and discusses CELCIS projects to support looked after children's education through local and national initiatives.
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CELCIS’ education work
- 1. celcis.org @CELCISTweets @LindasLearning Linda O’Neill Education Lead CELCIS Education Work
- 2. celcis.org @CELCISTweets @LindasLearning The real question Would it be good enough for our own children?
- 3. celcis.org @CELCISTweets @LindasLearning Who are looked after children? Children for whom a local authority has taken on some form of additional, legal responsibility for their care and wellbeing. In July 2017: 14,897 children were looked after by a local authority in Scotland Under 1 1-4 5-11 12-15 16-17 18+
- 4. celcis.org @CELCISTweets @LindasLearning Educational Outcome Indicators % All Children % Children in foster care % Children looked after at home % Children looked after part of the year Figures based on Aug 15 – Jul 16 stats Leaving school with no qualifications 2 * 26 20 Post school destination (9 month follow up) 91 84 45 56 Figures based on Aug 14 – Jul 15 stats Average attendance 94 97 82 84 Number of exclusions (per 1000) 27 135 261 315
- 5. celcis.org @CELCISTweets @LindasLearning What is Corporate Parenting? Corporate parenting refers to an organisation’s performance of actions necessary to uphold the rights and secure the wellbeing of a looked after child or care leaver, and through which their physical, emotional, spiritual, social and educational development is promoted, from infancy though to adulthood. In other words, corporate parenting is about certain organisations listening to the needs, fears and wishes of children and young people, and being proactive and determined in their collective efforts to meet them. (Scottish Government, 2015).
- 7. celcis.org @CELCISTweets @LindasLearning Corporate Parenting in practice ‘Looked After and Learning’ PDF download Or search the Knowledge Bank on the CELCIS website at www.celcis.org
- 8. celcis.org @CELCISTweets @LindasLearning CELCIS Education Team Projects National Work • CELCIS Education Forum • Support for Designated Managers • Get Write In! • Widening Access to FE/HE • Care to Achieve • Advocacy through consultation responses • Developmental approach Local Work • Parents in Partnership • Young People’s Inclusion Project • Designated Manager Profiling
- 9. celcis.org @CELCISTweets @LindasLearning Our opportunities • We have enabling policy and legislation • We have a wealth of evidence about what works • We are a highly skilled, passionate and committed workforce • We have a privileged and unique opportunity to make a difference
Editor's Notes
- Start by introducing you to Haley (and indulging my proud auntie tendencies!) Haley – 4 1/2, here and very pleased with her tai kwon do certificate! Picked the picture together and she wanted you to know that orange isn’t her favourite colour and that she hopes it will be yellow in the bigger class. Going to school in August; only small child in whole family results in an ‘orbiting’, every confidence that she’ll be fine and that she will be well taken care of and there are people there who will support her with any difficulties either in family or in school. We can all think of children and young people in our lives: own children, nieces, nephews, friends children, grandchildren who we have felt or feel these anxieties for but also felt security for them because they have support. However we can all also think of children that we have known or do know who don’t have this network or people who will notice when they need help, advocate for their rights, provide emotional support and stability These children are the reason that Corporate Parenting is important – to ensure that all looked after children, and families, have the people in their life who will ask the question ‘would it be good enough for my child?’ As you go through today, think of the children and young people in your personal and professional lives and hold them in your head through the keynotes and workshops Today is an opportunity to reflect on our own practice and systems and help us to ensure that it’s not just good enough for our own children, but all of our children
- To set some context around how many children and where they are – 14, 897 Same as towns the size of Port Glasgow, Larkhall or Broxburn and the capacity of Kilmarnock football stadium. In addition to this there are a significant number of children who are ‘on the edges of care’ (previously looked after or at risk) This is a significant number of children. All of whom will have suffered and in many cases are still experiencing trauma related to neglect, domestic violence, parental drug and alcohol misuse, chaotic lifestyles, homelessness, range of other adversities Not just one difficulty – several inter related Looked after at home still enduring pervasive and chronic issues Away from home, loss, separation from brothers and sisters, school changes Where are our children? Orange and purple largest group (compulsory school age) Green 1- 4 (early years settings) Although 75% leave school in fourth year, some will remain and others will go onto FE/HE So it’s not just schools, or mainstream classrooms that our children are in. Young people don’t start needing support at primary school or stop needing support just because they turn 18 This is why corporate parenting in education is relevant to so many organisations other than mainstream school settings Schools can’t and shouldn’t do this alone but education in the widest sense has real opportunities to make a difference
- Important to note that being looked after isn’t a predictor for not doing well in education and some young people do exceptionally well, in spite of the difficult circumstances that they’ve faced. This data represents a snapshot in time and doesn’t tell us anything about a child’s educational journey. What it can do though is give us an insight into how looked after children experience school Make us ask questions about how that experience relates to, on average, lower outcomes Figures at the bottom of the table are from the 14/15 stats as these figures are only published every two years On the whole, the majority of outcome indicators have improved for looked after children in recent years but still large gaps Less children in foster care than national average leave with no qualifications and have higher overall attendance There are though stark differences in levels of achievement, attendance and exclusions depending on where children live and how long they’ve been looked after Part of year represents children who have either become looked after or have ceased to be looked after within the year – those on the edges of care. Looking briefly at some of the indicators Average attendance for looked after at home and edges of care is 82-84% Equates (crudely) to between ¾’s – 1 day a week. Not just work being missed but peer relationships, extra curricular activities, FSM for some, stigma around ‘always being off’ The exclusion figures are even more stark. Looked after at home in Scottish school 10x more likely to be excluded and edge of care 12x more likely. Again, how does a child experience this? Stigma, compounding issues with attachment, risk and personal safety (home conditions), missing more work on top of the 2/3 to full day missed per week. When we delve a bit deeper into these number and think about a looked after child’s lived experience of school, alongside their difficult life circumstances, we can understand why there is a gap. There exists though, within policy and legislation, opportunities and obligations to improve this
- This is corporate parenting as defined in Part 9 of the CYP Scotland Act 14. Schedule 4 of this act sets out that in addition to local authorities, health boards and FE/HE establishments there are a number of other organisations SDS, Sports Scotland, Fire, Police (full list available on our website) Act clarified that every dept within an org is responsible Historically a widely held belief that it was social work that was responsible but the act clarifies this In addition to clarifying who is responsible, the act placed the principles of upholding rights and securing wellbeing for looked after children at the heart of the duties that corporate parents are responsible for.
- Statutory duties for all Corporate Parents Every corporate parent is expected to fulfil these duties in their own way, consistent with their purpose and functions. Briefly Alert to the needs and then assess those needs to ensure equity and inclusion of access to services Must also promote looked after children’s interests, provide opportunities to participate in wellbeing enhancing activities and continually seek to improve the service they offer. Finally there is a duty to collaborate with other CP’s to uphold rights and secure wellbeing Corporate parenting doesn’t happen in isolation to other policy and legislative frameworks such as Girfec and CfE; It does however provide us with another opportunity to put individual child at the heart of our provision and making sure that we meet their needs in an individualised way Very brief overview, more information throughout the day and available on our website
- Each setting, service, school is different so what does good corporate parenting in an education setting look and feel like and how do we make this happen? Evidence tells us that educational experiences for looked after children are improved through six areas: Commitment to the role of designated manager Effective parental and carer involvement Planning for education An inclusive approach to education Understanding attachment and promoting resilience Support for teachers We’ve developed a benchmarking and self evaluation toolkit designed to support schools to practically apply the evidence base within the policy context It helps us to think about what we need to be saying and doing differently in order to make a difference to the educational experiences of children and is available in your packs and as a download on our website Any improvement in provision you make for looked after children will benefit all children
- We also wanted to take the opportunity to tell you about some of the work we’re taking forward within the education team All the work we do is rooted in the evidence of what works and underpinned by the principles and values of the relevant policy and legislation Use all evidence and feedback from our work as part of the feedback loop between policy and practice so the vital information we get from practitioners on the ground is fed into national discussions In addition to the Forum – which has contributed to so much of today we also Recently published the results of the first national DM survey to help us understand more about the what support people need in this crucial role and you can hear more about this and the journey that SAC have been on in our workshop. Will be doing some in depth work with Aberdeen working directly to understand and profile the role and what support people in the role need Last year our first national writing comp for looked after children, tied closely to last years conference and promoted voice, participation, creativity, literacy and family learning, voice and. Huge success, learned a lot from participants by engaging directly with children and families. Look out for more information about this years’ comp Significant amount of work on widening access to FE/HE: Work closely with SAAS re developing guidance and application processes for new care experienced bursary On SFC governance group promoting equity of access for applicants with care experience Recent HEI roundtable to drive conversation around the guaranteed offer in COWA National data holders event Care to achieve is closely linked to this - working with all the national data holding agencies and Scottish government to think about how we understand more about the long term outcomes of those who have been looked after to ensure appropriate service planning and provision (Graham leads on work in this area and please speak to him) Locally we’re working with NAC who have implemented our parental engagement model PIP - hugely successful and has demonstrated the power of empowering and collaborating with parents (improved school attendance for children, one parent gone back to work and one at college, ASN group for other parents) YPIP 4 year funded action research project working with South Ayrshire which will be coproduced by children, families, education and children’s services staff to understand what inclusion looks like and how this links to post school destinations (Richard here and please talk to him) Learning from this project will be shared as widely as possible Developmental approach Recent privilege of being involved in a SUII series to explore with policy makers and practitioners what changes need to be made in our systems and practice to respond to children in a developmental way and meet them where they’re at. Discussed the importance of data earlier and what it tells us; care leavers go to FE/HE later, some aren’t ready to go to school when around 5 or make transitions at ‘age defined’ times Asking questions about what a system founded on responding in a developmental way, rather than in age/service specific groups. SUII website lots of interesting information and articles.
- Education, educators, the children’s services workforce and young people and families often get a hard time but I’d like to conclude by recognising some of the strengths and opportunities that exist. We have enabling policy and legislation that prompts us to strive for improved experiences and outcomes for children We have evidence of what works both in and out of the classroom and are getting better all the time at understanding what we need to be saying and doing differently to implement this into our practice We are a highly skilled, passionate and committed workforce; we have good learning and teaching methods and a workforce who genuinely want to continue to improve children’s lives through education Lastly, of all agencies involved with children we spend the most time with them which gives us the privilege and opportunity to get to know them and build trusting, impactful relationships and to continually ask the question ‘would it be good enough for our own children?’