It’s been almost 2 weeks since Buttle UK’s annual Quality Mark for Care Leavers conference. And, as always, it has left me with much to reflect on.
The Quality Mark for Care Leavers, created by Buttle UK in 2006, is a framework for validating the quality of support educational institutions offer young people in care and those who have left care. The annual conference creates an opportunity for practitioners from local authorities and across the higher and further education sectors, to discuss and find better ways to work together to help meet the needs of this group. Young people leaving care remain one of the most under-represented groups in further and higher education in the UK. Without the support of family, and often struggling to find sufficient money and a place to live, accessing and succeeding in education is a real achievement.
At the conference a care leaver at a further education college in Neath Port Talbot spoke. Their story was incredibly powerful, and as is always the case when I hear about the experiences of young people who leave care but fight to stay in education, I am deeply impressed by their determination to succeed in their education, and their incredible resilience and persistence regardless of poverty, ill health and family problems. It isn’t the case that care leavers aren’t capable of getting into further and higher education. Rather, that more needs to be done to encourage them to apply and help them to stay there.
When my organisation, children’s charity Buttle UK, first started looking into care leavers’ experiences of higher education in 2001, just 1% of those leaving care went to university. In 2011 the figure was 6%; better but still dramatically lower than the 35% of the general population. At a time of pressure on budgets and debate about access to further and higher education, it is more important than ever that these modest gains are not lost, and care leavers don’t end up being left further behind.
Eleven years on, and with much debate about widening access in the meantime, a lot of good work is being done by individual further education colleges and universities. Outreach programmes are encouraging access and dedicated services are supporting care leavers through their studies. The Quality Mark celebrates and evidences this work, and more colleges and universities are now aspiring to offer this quality of service to young people in care and care leavers.
The young people from higher and further education that spoke at the conference talked about the stigma of being in care. It is a great regret that this should be the case in the 21st century, however this also creates a dilemma for the education sector. It means that young people from care are reluctant to identify themselves as such, which therefore makes offering them support very difficult. This is something that I hope the Quality Mark can help with too. If more colleges and universities promote and celebrate the work they do for care leavers then this can break down barriers and reduce stigma.
The final key theme coming out of the conference was the importance of building partnerships between local authorities and the education sector. Despite improved legislation and guidance, a postcode lottery still exists in the quality of support for young people leaving care. The Quality Mark helps change this. Local authorities that create partnerships will find there are additional resources available through education institutions to support care leavers. In return, local authorities can help their care leavers by providing good information about those institutions that will meet their needs, and offer the best support.
For all of us working in social care, in an era of funding cuts, the reality we face to deliver results more cheaply and efficiently is to be more innovative with our services and creative with our partnerships. It is by facilitating these sorts of opportunities that we can help ensure that care leavers are not left behind.
Gerri McAndrew, Chief Executive of Buttle UK
Food poverty is a reality faced by many families in England. There is evidence that children in these families are not getting enough food to eat and that some mothers are regularly not having meal so that their children can eat. A third of the parents in our survey also said the school lunch was their child’s main meal of the day.
Free school meals are vitally important as they provide a daily meal for thousands of children living below the breadline. We also know that having a nutritious lunch at school can improve children’s health and help them to learn and achieve. Despite these acknowledged benefits, currently 1.2 children living in poverty do not receive free school meals. This is why The Children’s Society’s are launching the Fair and Square campaign to call on the government to ensure that all school children living in poverty can get a free school meal.
So why are so many children from low income families missing out? For 700,000 children it’s because they have parents that are working. Our survey of parents showed that the prospect of losing free school meals can be a massive barrier if they want to move into work or take on additional hours.
We are concerned that the situation could get even worse under the new benefit system Universal Credit. Many families may find that taking on additional hours, or a pay rise could result in them being worse off.
There are also continued concerns about the stigma attached to receiving free school meals. Every day 500,000 children who are entitled to free school meals do not eat them. Often this is because of teasing and bullying. When schools choose a cashless system for school meals, the children who get free school meals are not easily identifiable reducing the risk of teasing and bulling. As one of the parents in our survey said:
‘As we have a cashless system others kids need never know my kids have FSM. They are a godsend and I would really struggle without them.’
There is a vital need to improve the provision of free school meals in England. To make this happen please support our campaign and sign our petition.
Ruby Peacock is Policy and Parliamentary Assistant at The Children’s Society.
Show your love for outdoor play
Outdoor play is hitting the headlines at the moment. Last month it was the subject of the National Trust ‘Natural Childhood’ report which argued that children are suffering from ‘nature deficit disorder’. Before that Tim Gill set out the possible consequences of our children growing up with little access to nature in his ‘Sowing the Seeds’ report for the London Sustainable Development Commission. In fact, a growing body of evidence is emerging which clearly shows that children want and love to get outside to play, and they are healthier and happier as a result. (If you are yet to be convinced just take a look at Play England’s ‘A World Without Play’ literature review).
This is great news for everyone at Play England and the Love Outdoor Play campaign, where we are asking people to take action to show that they support outdoor play for children. This could be as simple as taking five minutes to map their local play space on our online play map, signing up to regularly give money, time or skills to a local play project, or finding out about local – or national – volunteering opportunities to help more children play outside more often. There’s something that everyone can do, no matter how much, or how little, time they have.
As the campaign gathers momentum we can find ways to tackle the barriers to playing out that undoubtedly exist. Whether it is the danger posed by more traffic on our roads, or parental fears over stranger danger, supporters of the Love Outdoor Play campaign are showing there are solutions that can unlock the door to better play opportunities in the great outdoors for our children and young people.
For further details about the Love Outdoor Play campaign visit http://loveoutdoorplay.net
Cath Prisk is director of Play England
Building resilience in vulnerable families
It is relatively easy for most to agree, especially in hard economic times where resources are limited, that any available support should be given to those who are judged most vulnerable or disadvantaged. However, any brief comfort which might be derived from achieving this consensus, is often short-lived, not least because agreeing who fits into this category is far from straightforward. Discussion can rapidly become polarised, especially when other factors are introduced. Initial agreement starts to become more equivocal and conditional as notions of personal responsibility, choice and willpower, dependence, deserving and ‘fairness’ enter the fray.
These are undoubtedly very tough times for most, and particularly so for those families with additional vulnerabilities, such as mental health and /or substance misuse problems. In these families, additional stressors such as high inflation, rising unemployment, decreasing or stagnant incomes, or benefit and service changes are likely to compound and exacerbate existing difficulties. In these challenging circumstances the consequences for children’s welfare, should families not receive the right support, are likely to be severe.
As attitudes towards particular issues harden and notions of the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor rationalise, resource allocation and the exclusion and stigma of “the undeserving” increases. At the same time, fear of being judged as ‘not coping ‘or being a ‘poor parent ‘can increase the tendency for families affected by parental mental health and/or substance misuse problems to withdraw and close in on themselves, increasing their social isolation and the vulnerability of themselves and their children.
Decreased tolerance and frustration might be the understandable responses of already stretched and stressed communities/the public at large and even some professionals. However, it is precisely when tolerance at large is being diminished that caring professionals are most required to be resilient and to resist such trends when responding, non-judgmentally, to need. They need to re-double their efforts to correct popular misconceptions and prejudices and advocate for and provide non-judgemental support to families .This is not easy work and is not the job of one agency or professional group. It is in order to support professionals that NCB has published a new edition of the handbook, Building Resilience in Families under stress, to provide professionals with practical assistance in translating the concept of building resilience into practice reality.
Sheryl Burton is the programme director of vulnerable children at NCB.
Building Resilience in Families under stress is out now and available to buy at www.ncb.org.uk/resources/publications
Building confidence in the young unemployed
Before being accepted on NCB’s skills development programme (SDP), I was unemployed for a year. I went to many interviews for jobs in a variety of industries.
NCB offered me a work placement at the Alzheimer’s Society, working as a press assistant – a dream opportunity, as I had been looking for a role in the creative sector since I left university almost three years ago. Being unemployed for a year, and being rejected after so many interviews, left me with little confidence and self belief. It was very demoralising and my hope that I would gain employment was dwindling.
NCB’s SDP eases you slowly into the workplace. Building up confidence and essential work skills gradually, so you don’t feel like you’re out of your depth. The NCB working environment is very friendly, supportive and helpful. The seminars and lessons staff at NCB hold are energetic and interactive and as a result, by the end of the first week our group knew most of the team at NCB. The staff are very knowledgeable and all the information they give is relevant to the world of work, which make it very easy to be interested whilst learning.
I think the SDP is fantastic. NCB provide excellent training programmes, from IT skills to presentation skills. I have met lots of great people and had fun whilst being constructive in helping myself develop skills for working. I am having a great time in my work placement, just as I have at the skills programme. I will be sad to leave but grateful that I have gained such good experience and training which will be useful in the future.
Thank you NCB!
Lucy Jackson, SDP participant
For more information on the SDP visit http://www.ncb.org.uk/skills-development-programme
Perspectives on bullying and difference
As part of International Friendship Month (February) NCB is encouraging everyone to think about the value of friendship. Nurturing friendships and learning to respect one another is, for most of us, a given part of growing up – one that we can often take for granted.
In days gone by children and young people were often left to their own devices when it came to relationships with their peers. It was frowned upon to ‘tell tales’ and bullying was considered to be ‘character building.’
Thankfully, we have moved on and we now accept that, whilst squabbles between friends are not uncommon, they can turn into bullying. We must listen with respect to children and young people. After all, every child has the right to be safe: bullying needs to be tackled.
Bullying is now firmly on the school’s agenda but is this true of the bullying of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEN/D)? This question forms the basis of NCB’s new book Perspectives on Bullying and Difference.
Research findings in the book show that children with SEN/D are at a significantly higher risk of being bullied than their peers and the problems are made worse by isolation and marginalisation. Perspectives on Bullying and Difference shows a lot can be done to reduce the levels of bullying experienced by these children and young people and that the social support provided by friendships or even acquaintances with peers is an important protective factor. Let us stop and reflect during International Friendship Month – solutions are closer than we may think.
Fergus Crow is the director of education and wellbeing at NCB.
Perspectives on Bullying and Difference is out in March and available to pre-order at www.ncb.org.uk/books/bullying
A fresh vision for Children and Society
2012 heralds the arrival of a new editorial team at Children and Society - the interdisciplinary journal co-published by NCB on all aspects of childhood. The new team includes Professor Mary Jane Kehily, Dr Heather Montgomery and Dr Lindsay Odell (all based at the Open University) as well as myself at Sussex University. Collectively, the editors bring together a strong profile in childhood and youth studies, with a range of expertise in research, curriculum development and policy and practice fields. Our approach is interdisciplinary, international and combines theoretical sophistication with applied know-how.
Our main aim is to ensure the continued success of Children and Society as the first choice publication for leading scholars, policy makers and practitioners concerned with the 0-18 age group. We aim to continue the 25-year heritage of high quality, interdisciplinary publishing that speaks to a global audience.
Shifting patterns of inequality point to a growing diversity in the experience of what it is to be a child. Some of the big challenges that we expect the journal to engage over the next five years include:
- Building dialogue between developed and developing world perspectives
- Making sense of the commercialisation of childhood and youth
- Responding to trans-nationalism
- Engaging with developments within the natural sciences and the influence of scientific discourse on the field.
The editors are working with NCB and the publisher Wiley Blackwell to find new ways of bringing together authors and audiences – using the journal website and new social media tools such as podcasts and videocasts as well as holding events. So keep an eye on the journal website for new developments.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1099-0860
Rachel Thomson, Professor of Childhood and Youth Studies, Sussex University
A matter of discipline
In recent months we’ve heard a growing rumble of noise in the media about a greater need for discipline among children. This has sometimes included the desire to revert to a time when discipline was an accepted measure of control by adults. There’s a sub-text here of a yearning for ‘order and structure’ in communities – whether schools or neighbourhoods – where children and young people spend most of their time. Alternatively the sub-text can be a call for reintroducing violence against children, meaning ‘corporal punishment’, a ‘clip round the ear’ or ‘a good smack’.
Order and structure is a valuable and important part of learning and living with others. There needs to be clear and commonly understood ‘rules of engagement’, without which bullying and shouting can prevail, preventing children from being able to enjoy life and achieve their potential.
The best teachers don’t gain control with physical contact, they abhor it. The few who struggle may erroneously see physical ‘discipline’ as a simple solution to their own need for more training in skills and techniques to manage behaviour.
Most parents and teachers use a wide variety of techniques to make clear to their child or student what is and is not acceptable behaviour. Most importantly they model it themselves by speaking in a calm but assertive voice, setting out warnings and taking actions that deny pleasures and preferences of children, where necessary. Such techniques remain the most effective. They do not destroy the relationship on which progress for the child and success for the teacher or parent rely – as physical ‘discipline’ can. Physical ‘discipline’ is not part of a trusting relationship, it’s often a cathartic action for adults. Violence against children teaches a child nothing more than how to be violent.
Barbara Hearn, deputy chief executive of NCB
World AIDS Day – getting to zero
World AIDS Day 2011 on 1 December is themed ‘Getting to Zero’, reflecting UNAIDS vision of ‘Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths.’
In the UK, children and their families have access to interventions that reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to less than 1%, as well as treatment which renders HIV a manageable long-term condition. But how can we ‘get to zero’ for children and young people?
New infections amongst infants are, thankfully, very rare now in the UK. However, young people are acquiring HIV through unprotected sex: the Health Protection Agency recorded 1,624 new diagnoses amongst 16-24 year olds from 2009 to June this year.
Deaths in children and young people are also uncommon but do happen occasionally, usually as a result of late diagnosis precluding effective treatment, or poor adherence to treatment.
Stigma and discrimination, actual and feared, are still huge issues. Many HIV-positive children are not told the name of their diagnosis until the age of 10-12, largely due to stigma. Teenagers living with HIV talk about leading double lives, hiding their condition even from family members. Fear of discrimination also plays a part in new infections and deaths. A mother may decline antenatal HIV testing, or parents may refrain from getting children tested, because a positive result is seen as stigmatizing – missing opportunities to prevent or treat HIV. A young person may avoid taking medicine because it is a daily reminder of a difference which others seem unable to accept.
In order for any nation to ‘get to zero’, it needs to tackle public awareness and understanding, supporting people to make healthy choices and addressing stigma and discrimination. The government’s current review of PSHE education is a perfect opportunity to do this.
Emily Hamblin, co-ordinator of the HIV Network at NCB.
Don’t be in denial about bullying, says Educating Essex Head
What is the biggest mistake leaders of organisations make about bullying? Denying it exists in ‘their place’. So how can a young person be expected to open up about their experiences of bullying when we won’t accept that it even exists? I can assure you it does and until we all accept that, and work proactively to alter it, the situation won’t improve.
Victims of bullying often blame themselves. Not only do they have to deal with the bully, they have to cope with their own poor self image and the fact that, sometimes, no one in power wants to believe there’s a problem.
So, what can schools do to help? The biggest advice I would give is to make sure being bullied is not something to be embarrassed about in your school.
A victim of bullying has to have an outlet for how they’re feeling: whether this is through a text line, email or ‘bully box’, or by telling other young people or school counsellors. Heaven forbid, it could even be the head teacher themselves!
I don’t advocate the punishment of any young person just to give a parent/carer their ‘pound of flesh’. We must change the behaviour of the bully to make sure they don’t just find a new victim.
I’m a big supporter of the restorative justice process to implement long term change in bullying behaviour. We need to show bullying perpetrators how much impact their behaviour is having on the victim and their family and friends. Doing this takes time, and time is money of course. But, the long term change in behaviour that more often comes about is worth it, I promise you.
Vic Goddard, Head master of Passmores School featured in the popular Channel 4 documentary ‘Educating Essex’.
