Every year, Scotland reports on the educational outcomes for looked-after children. This publication sets out the attainment, achievements and post-school destinations of school leavers who were in care. Every year, it is awful reading. Statistic after statistic highlights deeply how unfathomably poorly we serve the young people who are in our care - who are our responsibility.
The Independent Care Review’s Promise report has been welcomed enthusiastically by government and civic Scotland. Clearly, poor life outcomes for those in care are the reason a review was needed, and the Scottish government - and first minister Nicola Sturgeon personally - deserve high praise for bringing care-experienced young people’s outcomes to the heart of government. The declared ambitions and genuine enthusiasm for Scotland to #KeepThePromise, however, often seem far at odds with how bad the situation is at the moment.
In the 2018-19 school year, 65 per cent of leavers who were in care left school without even one National 5 Qualification; just shy of 90 per cent did not have a single Higher. These outcomes are a national embarrassment of which we should be ashamed. We would not accept them for children in our families - so we should not accept it for these young people who are in our care either.
Background: 17% of looked-after pupils leave with no qualifications
WATCH: ‘Do not underestimate care-experienced children’
Professional advice: 7 ways teachers can help looked-after children
Five per cent of looked-after children went into higher education -nearly eight times fewer than those who were not in care - while 71 per cent of care-experienced young people were in a “positive destination” nine-months after leaving school; it was 93 per cent for their peers.
These headline figures are the result of much more worrying trends in attainment earlier in the curriculum. In literacy and numeracy at P1, P4, P7 and S3, the gap in achievement is never less than 15 per cent, and it is 36 per cent in writing in P4. Talk about not standing a chance.
But there are also some areas of promise: the same proportion of care-experienced young people who went into higher education after school were still there nine months later, showing some promise in policies such as the Care-Experienced Bursary designed to improve retention rates.
The issue, however, is that while these policies are life-changing for the receiving individuals, they are not system changing. If only 11 per cent of pupils in care get even one Higher, the support you give to those who get to university is going to be small fry on a systemic level.
These outcomes are also pre-Covid. The attainment gaps will now almost certainly be worse. The four walls of the classroom are not the driver or the sole solution to wider societal inequality of course. There are however interventions - which are systemic, secure and long term - which could be implemented.
Who Cares? Scotland and VTO (Volunteer Tutors Organisation) Scotland are calling for a national tutoring programme for care-experienced pupils. Modelled on the wide-ranging English system announced earlier this year, it could be a game-changer in dealing with issues in attainment earlier in the curriculum. It is a clear opportunity to #KeepThePromise, and I hope it is taken.
Barry Black is a postgraduate education researcher at the University of Glasgow. He tweets @BarryBlackNE
