To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the future education prospects and social mobility of children taken into local authority care and moved around the care system.
Answered on
18 June 2018
We know that stability for a child in care is a key factor in forming secure, high-quality relationships that can help a child to thrive in education and into adulthood. Research by the Rees Centre for Research in Fostering and Education shows the important relationship between stability and better outcomes for young people in care in mainstream schools at the end of key stage 4.
The Department for Education is working to improve stability for looked after children, including investing £3.8 million in the Mockingbird Family Model. This aims to improve placement stability by providing enhanced support to foster carers and the children they look after. The department collects and publishes annually information on the educational attainment of looked-after children and outcomes for care leavers aged 19, 20 and 21 years old and uses this information to inform policies to improve outcomes.