We at ECLCM worry that this government simply does not
appreciate its obligation to children and young people in the care system. It
routinely fails to support care leavers, but this may be because it simply
fails to appreciate their situation, and its obligation towards them. We have
seen evidence that the government does feel concern about vulnerable families,
but somehow this concern does not seem to extend to the children leaving its
care.
A good example might be the ‘Troubled Families Initiative’
introduced by the coalition government in 2011. We won’t offer a view on
whether this was a good or indeed a bad initiative. What matters is that Mr Cameron, his
colleagues and advisors considered that it was a way forward and adopted it as
policy. Neither will we take issue with their definition of a ‘troubled family’
– it appears to be the government’s default position. A ‘troubled family’ is described
in the programme as:
“…..characterised by there being no adult in
the family working, children not being in school and family members being
involved in crime and anti-social behaviour.
These families almost
always have other often long-standing problems which can lead to their children
repeating the cycle of disadvantage. One estimate shows that in over a third of
troubled families, there are child protection problems. Another estimate
suggests that over half of all children who are permanently excluded from
school in England come from these families, as do one-in-five young offenders.
Other problems such as
domestic violence, relationship breakdown, mental and physical health problems
and isolation make it incredibly hard for families to start unravelling their
problems.
The cost of these
families to the public purse is very significant – approximately £9 billion a
year, the vast majority spent on reacting to their problems. And most
importantly, most of the money being spent is not providing lasting results and
changing lives.”
That seems to make sense – until we reflect that the biggest
‘family’ in Britain is that comprising ‘looked after children’, children in the
care system.
There are literally thousands of children in the care
system. They live in children’s homes, or foster homes or may be placed within
their own ‘family network’ under legislation such as Special Guardianship
Orders. Their birth parents have been judged to be unable or unfit to care for
them, so that parental duty has been taken over by the state. They have become
the children of ‘corporate parents’. Their parents are local authorities, and
more specifically central government who are responsible for the legislation that
governs their care and who, through the auspices of Ofsted, monitor the quality
of their parenting. The government allocate the funds to local authorities that
pretty much dictates how much they can spend, and therefore the quality of care
that can be offered to these ‘corporate children’.
If we return to the ‘Troubled Families Initiative’ and look
again at some of the adjectives and other descriptors the government have
applied in their definition, we can use those to compare these ‘corporate
parents’ with those birth parents deemed to be incapable of or unwilling to
deliver ‘good enough parenting’. The results are eye opening. Let’s have a closer look!
School attendance was one measure of children in a troubled
family. We notice immediately that a disproportionate number of children in the
‘care family’ fail to attend school as regularly as would be desirable. These
children also tend to achieve lower grades and outcomes. This is not because
they are unintelligent or fail to apply themselves. Indeed, in part it’s because
before coming into care they are likely to have already had difficulty in
getting to school regularly and when they come into care they tend to move a
lot.
They may not want to move around and of course their ‘corporate
parents’ are not actually going to move with them - it just happens this way
sometimes because their ‘corporate parents’ may have placed them somewhere not
able to meet their needs, often based on how much it costs rather than whether
it was the best place for them to live.
We don’t suggest that the children in care don’t see their
parents as role models going to work – most don’t actually know who their corporate
parents are. How many politicians make themselves known to children in care and
genuinely work to convince them that they are doing their best for them? ECLCM would suggest too few. For example, in the
last few weeks we tried to engage with politicians from all parties to talk
about children in care. We and other caring organisations approached politicians
and broadcasters requesting that politicians be asked directly where they stood
on children in care – if they got into power, how would they help children in
the care system? There was no response.
We can only assume from that there weren’t enough votes to be gained and
little public interest in these children to whom we are all corporate parents.
Do children in the care family have family members who are
involved in anti-social behaviour? Absolutely they do! Even though only a tiny proportion (2%) of
children come into care as a result of anti-social behaviour, after a few years
in ‘care’ they are found to represent a massively high proportion of
perpetrators. Perhaps we need to do as
successive government have done - blame the (corporate) parents.
Using the government’s definition of a ‘troubled family’
once more - does the ‘care family’ have long term problems? Absolutely it does!
There has been little improvement in outcomes for children in care over the
last forty years and that seems pretty ‘long term’ to us.
Are children born to adults who were in care likely to enter
care themselves? Absolutely they are - the chances of this happening are considerably
higher than the entry of a child into care whose parents were raised within
their own birth family.
A picture is emerging.
The child of ‘corporate parents’ is likely to have had had a difficult
childhood, with relatively poor role models as parents. It is likely to have suffered
from (inevitable?) attachment difficulties, given it may have had 5, or 10, or
20 or even more different sets of carers during its care career. How on earth
is such a child supposed to be a great parent?
The surprise is that many care leavers make such remarkably
good parents given their experiences in the care system.
Does the ‘care family’ experience child protection or
safeguarding problems? They certainly do
– we need only ask those children, now adults involved in the campaign for
justice following historical child abuse. It would be folly to imagine that in 30
years, 2015 will be described as a year in which no ‘historical’ organised
abuse took place. We need only ask those girls and boys in care who are
targeted by rings of sex offenders organising child sexual exploitation across
the UK. We fear that the true extent of this is yet to be reported.
We’ve already noted the issues related to educational
achievement and offending behaviour among children in the care family, so
nothing needs to be added. The facts
should speak for themselves.
What about the long term care given by these corporate
parents to these care children as they mature towards adulthood? Examination of
‘life after care’ in this country over decades is depressing reading.
Some
people don’t like to be reminded of the statistics, but even so, here are some of
the more well known facts:
· - 22% of care leavers were living in accommodation
not deemed to be suitable;
· - a third of care leavers are not in education,
employment or training - compared with 13% of all young people;
· - a quarter of young women leaving care are
pregnant or already mothers and nearly half become mothers by the age of 24;
· - 23% of the adult prison population has been in
care and almost 40% of prisoners under 21 were in care as children (only 2% of
the general population spend time in prison);
· - almost half of young men (49%) under the age of
21 with a care experience have come into contact with the criminal justice
system and about 27% of young men in custody have spent time in care;
· - over half of young women (55%) in the 15 – 18
age groups have spent some time in local authority care. This is further
supported by the Ministry of Justice prison population statistics which show
that over 25% of prisoners had been taken into care as a child;
· - around a quarter of those living on the street
have a background in care;
· - care leavers are four or five times more likely
to commit suicide in adulthood; and
· - between 45-49% of looked after children aged
5-17 years show signs of psychosocial adversity and psychiatric disorders,
which is higher than the most disadvantaged children living in private
households. Physical and mental problems increase at the time of leaving care.
How much more evidence is needed?
One factor in the coalition government refusal to implement
‘Staying Put’ for all care leavers was cost.
Let’s concentrate on cost for a
few moments. Not cost in terms of lives, wasted potential or humanity, just cost
to the Exchequer. It costs a great deal to take children into care and to look
after them whilst they are there. ECLCM
believe that, given the data reproduced above, it costs a great deal more in
the lifetime of children from the care system (those who do not commit suicide)
after they have left care.
Too many are ill equipped to contribute to society; too many
enter prison or claim benefit and too many have dependents who will themselves
enter care. The ‘care family’ is failing and perhaps its greatest failure of
all comes at the end of childhood in their teenage years when the ‘corporate
parent’ decides they no longer need to be receiving care. For children in
residential care, and indeed for many in foster care, the reality these young
care leavers face is the ‘care cliff’. This point is often not long after their
sixteenth or seventeenth birthday when they are all too often cast adrift, abandoned
by their ‘care family’ to make their own way in the world. This time of life is
when ‘good families’ are planning for their children to go off to university, start
their first job or take a gap year – all supported by their parents commonly
until they reach their mid to late twenties and often beyond. These lucky
children will be supported and welcomed back ‘home’ long after that not shown
the door and expected to survive despite all the disadvantages that being in
the ‘care family’ has bestowed upon them.
Is the ‘care family’ a ‘troubled family’ as the government
defined it? It certainly seems to meet all of the criteria as children progress
through their childhood. Where it is most apparent just how troubled the
troubled care family is when its children are sixteen, or seventeen. That’s
when the ‘corporate parent’ says to them “You are not our children anymore”.
Every Child Leaving Care Matters and they deserve better than we their corporate parents deliver. That is why we ask you to sign our petition and support the campaign for Staying Put to be available to all young people leaving care at least until they are 21.
