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A Different Class? Educational Attainment: the views and experiences of looked after young people
Working Towards…Achievement and Attainment
Achievement and Attainment
One of the key aims of the consultation exercise, and subsequent report was to provide the reader with baseline data on the self reported achievements of looked after young people. This section will present the data as related by the young people and explore the implications.
- Of the 170 respondents, 68 reported achieving qualifications representing 40% of the sample.
However this figure recognises a range of qualifications, incorporating practical skills awards and vocational subjects, across the age range of 7-18 years. It is important to acknowledge these achievements as well that of formal academic qualifications, as they reflect a great source of pride for the young people who participated in the consultation.
Table 6:
Breakdown of Range of Qualifications Achieved by Young People
Level of Qualification | No of young people |
Standard grade, Access or Intermediate | 39 |
SVQ | 4 |
Practical Skill | 18 |
Youth Award Scheme | 4 |
Highers | 1 |
5-14 curriculum | 3 |
- Practical skills included certificates for swimming, life saving, Kayaking, cycling proficiency, football and dancing.
Interestingly if we reduce the sample to those young people aged 15 or over, who are therefore of an age to have achieved standard grades, the figures for attainment are not greatly improved.
- 88 young people involved in the consultation are aged 15-18, allowing us to interpret the 39 who achieved Standard grades etc as 44% of those eligible.
Like many of the findings from existing research, the consultation responses show that looked after young people are still falling below the national figures for attainment.
- The average number of standard grades for those young people achieving awards in the sample was 4, compared to a national average of 7.
Table 7:
Young people Achieving Standard Grades by Type of Care.
Type of Care | Total No. of
Male Female aged 15-18 | No. Achieving Standard Grades
Male Female | % Achieving in Type of Care |
Residential Unit | 14 | 27 | 4 | 8 | 29% |
Foster care | 6 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 67% |
Secure | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 50% |
Residential School | 13 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 57% |
Care Leavers | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 50% |
The data presented above, reveals a disparity between the percentage of young people achieving standard grades in residential units and those in other types of care settings. This is particularly evident when comparing the figures for residential units and foster care. This information reinforces previous research findings that young people living in foster care are likely to fair better educationally that their counterparts in residential units. (St Claire and Osbourne, 1987)
Whilst improving the educational attainment of all looked after young people is a key priority, central to this concern, must be a concerted effort to redress the balance between young people in differing types of care.
It is interesting to note from the results generated above that there is little difference in achievement by the two genders in residential units and foster care. That is to say, in residential units 30% of females achieved standard grades compared to 29% of males, and in foster care both sexes achieved a 67% success rate. Yet this does not appear to be the case in other types of care. In secure care, 100% of females achieved standard grades compared to 40% of males. Similarly of the young people in residential schools, 100% of females achieved, compared to 54% of males.
Working Towards….
Table 8:
Breakdown of Range of Qualifications Young People are Working Towards
Level of Qualification | No of young people |
Standard grade, Access or Intermediate | 81 |
Highers | 10 |
Practical Skill | 4 |
Youth Award Scheme | 1 |
SVQ | 8 |
NC | 1 |
5-14 curriculum | 6 |
- 111 reported working towards qualifications, representing 65% of the sample.
- 46 of the 111 young people reported already achieving qualifications.
- The 111 young people ranged in age from 9-18, with only a small number below the age of 14.
Whilst the data highlights a majority of young people working towards qualifications, a significant number, 59 young people, reported not working towards any qualifications. This number however does include the full age range of the report, and therefore we must allow for some of the younger participants, who may have been unaware of the national curriculum they are working towards.
Of the 59 young people not working towards qualifications, 37 were in the sub group who reported not achieving any qualifications. Worryingly 35 of the 37, are in the 15-18 age bracket. As a result it appears they are likely to conclude their education as a further statistic which evidences that looked after young people are failing educationally. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the previous data, 65% of those young people live in residential units, compared to 10% living in foster care.
Conclusion
- More than half the young people eligible to sit formal academic qualifications report not having achieved any.
- The young people who do achieve do less well than the national average.
- Young people in residential units do less well than their counterparts in other care settings.
- In most care settings females outperform males, yet in residential units both sexes perform poorly.
- A significant number of young people, of an appropriate age, have achieved no qualifications and report not working towards any.
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