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1 Introduction
We recognise that outcomes for children who are looked after by local authorities in Scotland have long been a source of concern. There is a significant body of research on the difficulties and failures that looked after children experience. There is relatively little research on looked after children that has a focus on good outcomes. Reports in the Scottish media on looked after children frequently focus on this group as a problem and we hear little about looked after children who are living ordinary lives and are happy and successful. As one participant said:
There's never anything in the press about people such as myself having a nice time in care. It's always about that young person that got beaten up and tortured. It's always bad publicity in the papers and the news … it's just nonsense. (Fraser)
Publicity about poor outcomes tempts us to think that the care system in Scotland is failing, and failing miserably. But what of the looked after children who become successful? How much do we know of the characteristics and circumstances of those children whose experience of being looked after has been positive and life enhancing? What factors contributed to their eventual happiness and success? What can we learn from their experience which we could use to improve how we care for looked after children, now and in the future?
Rather than continuing to identify and analyse difficulties and failure, we wanted to learn more about looked after children who succeed. We know from research that children's futures are not necessarily fixed by their past. Becoming looked after is an opportunity for the direction and pathway of a child's life to change. Our main aim therefore was, to understand, from people who have been looked after, what helped them become and feel successful.
We had a number of objectives:
- to find out what helped this group of children grow into successful adults
- to inform people who care for looked after children about what helps and what makes a difference to the futures of looked after children
- to publicly recognise and celebrate the success of looked after children
We interviewed 30 adults and young people who had been looked after or who were moving towards independence having been looked after. We also spoke with the carers and professionals of another two individual participants. The methodology of the study is described in Appendix 1. We asked individual participants to tell us their stories of being looked after and what helped them achieve the success they experienced in their lives. We also asked participants about what they thought should change in how children are looked after. In addition to these individual accounts, we discussed the need for change in detail with two groups of young people who had recently become independent after being looked after, and we have included this in the chapter on what participants want to change. We prepared two criteria that defined different kinds of success. These were that:
- participants are demonstrably able to make and sustain meaningful relationships
- participants are engaged in some kind of work, education, training or meaningful activity
Agreeing these two indicators of success was not straightforward. We wanted the indicators to reflect the positive developmental ideas that we discuss in this study in the later chapters. We decided against a narrower focus, for example on academic achievement, as we wanted to be inclusive of the different kinds of success that are important to all children.
This approach let us include young people like Alison (14), who has learning difficulties and has recently moved from a specialist school to a school in the local town. Alison thinks this is a huge achievement and everyone who knows her agrees. She told us:
Being more independent is probably the biggest thing ever and going to my new school is something quite incredible for me to do. I've grown up a lot.
We believe that policy makers, politicians, leaders, managers and the people who directly care for looked after children can learn from children and young people themselves. Increasingly, children are being seen as active participants who directly shape their lives and able to contribute effectively to the world around them (Moss 2002). We have therefore included in this study the stories of the participants themselves and where appropriate, their actual words. Some of the participants were happy to be identified. They were proud of their successes and did not mind people knowing their histories. Others did not want to be identified to a wider audience as looked after children. A number of the stories also had the potential to identify other family members who had not agreed to be part of the study. For these reasons, we have anonymised all the participants by giving them different names, removing some details from their stories that we thought might make them identifiable and summarising some of their life stories. The age we give for participants is their age in 2005, when this study took place. The stories and words we include here are powerful examples of just what the participants have achieved, and they remind us of the potential of all our looked after children.
This study focuses on a small selected group of people who were looked after. While we can learn from their experiences, we cannot assume that replicating their experiences would automatically lead to improved outcomes for every other child.
The participants told us about what did make a difference to them and we think that this, together with our analysis, can guide practice in working with looked after children and young people.
From our interviews with participants, five factors emerged as critical to their success:
- having people who care about you
- experiencing stability
- being given high expectations
- receiving encouragement and support
- being able to participate and achieve
The impact on participants' lives of their relationships with others dominated their views. Being successful was strongly influenced by the behaviour and attitudes of others but also depended on the attitudes and actions of the participants themselves.
The next chapter describes the group of participants and their experiences. The following five chapters follow the factors that were identified as critical to participants success. The eighth chapter describes the participants' views of what should change for looked after children. The final chapter sets out the conclusions of the study.
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