Children and young people may not be in the care of their parents for a variety of different reasons. Most known arrangements are often as a result of interventions through children's social care where it has become unsafe for them to remain in the care of their parents.
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence has summarised a few considerations as to what contributes to poorer outcomes of children in care:
There are legal and statutory duties that education settings need to take to ensure that reasonable adjustments are made to support and promote educational outcomes for those in care. Each setting must have a Designated Teacher to undertake these duties that are set out in the following statutory documents:
You maybe wondering why we do not use the acronym 'LAC'(Looked After Child).
1. Children and young people have names. We run this risk of dehumanising them and disregarding their lived experiences. They are not a status, they are people in their own rights.
2. LAC when pronounced out loud can be heard as 'Lack'. This can be triggering and further reinforce the hurt and loss a child and young person has experienced.
This video is from the IMO (In My Opinion) project - a peer led platform where children in care and care leavers share first hand stories experiences and advice with others in a similar situation.
In Bristol we have reviewed our approach to supporting children and young people who are in care or have been previously looked after. This is captured in Our Epic Plan - Bristol's Corporate Parenting Strategy 2021-23.
The Children and Social Work Act 2017 has bought around changes to ensure that financial support and reasonable adjustments are in place for children and young people who have previously been in care arrangements - noting that vulnerabilities and harm they have experienced will have longer-term impacts.
A ‘previously looked after’ child is a child who was in the care of the local authority but was then adopted, became subject to a Child Arrangements Order, or a Special Guardianship Order.
Local Authority support for children and young people in care was formally extended until their 25th Birthday (previously until they were 21 years old).
Private Fostering
Private fostering occurs when a child under the age of 16 (under 18 for children with a disability) is provided with care and accommodation by a person who is not a parent, a person with parental responsibility for them or a relative in their own home.
This arrangement has to be longer than 28 days to be considered private fostering. This must be referred to Children's social care to ensure that the placement is safe and/or to offer additional support to the child, young person or carer if they require it.
It is important to recognise that this is not a formal care arrangement but can potentially qualify for support under s.17 of the Children Act 1989.
Private fostering arrangements may reflect wider vulnerabilities around a family's circumstances. Reasonable adjustments should be considered for children and young people affected to ensure that they're educational outcomes are not impaired.
Kinship Care
The terms kinship care can be used to describe a number of circumstances whereby a child or young person maybe cared for by someone other than their birth parents or those with parental responsibility.
It is commonly used to refer to incidents where there is a civil or family arrangement where a child is cared for by a close family relative such as a grandparent, aunt, uncle or brother or sister. Sometimes this can be due to state intervention whereby placement with a family member is considered less disruptive than putting a child in a formal care arrangement.
It is important to consider that there may be vulnerabilities in place for these children where reasonable adjustments need to be made around promoting educational outcomes.
These children tend not be eligible for pupil premium unless the care arrangement was arranged through legal proceedings initiated by the Local Authority.