From care to prison- changing the path
Prof. Amanda Kirby MBBS MRCGP PhD FCGI
Honorary/Emeritus Professor; Doctor | PhD, Multi award winning;Neurodivergent; CEO of tech/good company
There have been many studies describing the lives of children in care and their associated challenges relating to their social, health, educational and economic disadvantage compared to a mainstream population.
In the last 30 years the numbers of children in the looked-after care system have fallen, but in recent years there has been a significant increase.
There were 70,440 looked after children at 31 March 2016, an increase of 1% compared to 31 March 2015 and an increase of 5% compared to 2012.
About 1 in 100 of the child population and the best estimates are that around 3.4% of adults spent some time in public care during their childhood.These children usually start with a series of disadvantages some of which may be related to their abilities to learn, and sometimes related to neglect and abuse, and sometimes both.
Do we as a society additionally compound the children's issues and make the challenges of accessing ongoing support even harder to do? How do we prevent this cycle of deprivation and missing educational experiences? How do we support and educate their parents? If you don’t know how and where to access support because of low literacy levels, or difficulties with communication how can you effect change in you or your children? If you don't know, what you don't know then what happens to you?
Why do children in Care have a far higher risk of entering the Criminal Justice System than the general population (ending in the care of the state once again!)?
The tangled web of actions has an impact on all levels:
o Movement from school to school and from area to area.
o This leads to a lack of close and maintained friendships.
o It also leads to gaps in learning and disenfranchisement with education.
o Age leaving school is earlier and attendance at school lower, further exacerbating the poor educational outcome.
o Access to services is harder if you move around a system.
o Misidentification of learning difficulties which may be viewed as behavioural difficulties.
o Knowledge of service providers who look after Looked After Children may not recognize symptoms and signs associated with learning difficulties such as ADHD, and specific language impairments.
Around 1 in 3 Children in Care (28%) have a statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN). This means they have been through a diagnostic process and a professional has identified educational difficulties.
o More exclusions seen in LAC than mainstream children leading to more time lost at school and truancy is interlinked within this cycle.
In one study: “Reported truancy, drug use and conduct problems in the social service files were all significantly associated with offending, with each other as variables and were frequently entrenched with school exclusion before the young person entered care.” (Simkiss, 2012).
o Higher rates of mental health challenges such as depression, and self-harm.
Children in care present with high rates of both emotional and behavioural problems, and also neurodevelopmental problems. (Meltzer, Gatward, Corbin, Goodman, & Ford, 2003).
o Greater risk of entering the offending system than mainstream population (e.g. in 1200 offenders from one prison 21.7% had been LAC, in 3600 offenders from another the level was 24%.
o Poor transition from child to adult services leading to greater risk of homelessness making it harder to engage with services for education and to meet health concerns.
The amazing thing is that we actually know who these children are.
They are in our systems, have names and faces and we also know their outcomes in life are far worse than those in the mainstream population.
The cost of ignoring this is high for us all and also ends up with the next generation continuing to have similar challenges.
We need to consider how to work together and not in professional silos e.g. behaviour, learning difficulties and school attendance. A child in care needs co-ordinated support and this needs to be seamless for the child. This requires staff in social services, education and health to have common language, common recording and also shared training opportunities.
What do you think would make THE difference?
- A means of gathering information at different points and from different professionals and including the voice of the child.
- Assessment and screening tools for learning difficulties delivered in accessible formats so that someone with literacy, communication or learning difficulties can access the system.
- Alert system if there are cumulative risk factors that may indicate increased support needs e.g. learning needs/housing/language challenges
- A means of 'passporting' information from one agency to another so this doesn't have to be gathered again and again
- Person centred guidance for staff, families and the individual as they move through the system
- Data that can be used to inform service delivery and recognise regional and local variations.
Contact www.doitprofiler.com if you want to know more how our system works
A society is measured on how we react to the most vulnerable. For 2017 perhaps we need to start with the children in our care.
Senior Mediator specialist in Employment and Discrimination at Marsh Mediation Practic
7 年Yes well done in stating once again the known issue, however it might be time to reconsider more radical ways out of the cycl. Relying on state founding just seams never to happen, despite knowing the valued and returns in human capital. The focus must be on the children themslefs, it is literally a training course to service our very competitive society. They will suffer, but the suffering must not turn into distraction. Get in touch to lean more.
Honorary/Emeritus Professor; Doctor | PhD, Multi award winning;Neurodivergent; CEO of tech/good company
7 年We have difficulty interpreting some data sometimes e.g. exclusion rates can go down, but there can be 'managed moves' instead. The key aspect is always around shared funding approaches when different services deliver different aspects of care. This is often the ongoing stumbling block.
Winning Bids and Proposals
7 年I share your frustration. Can a way be found to adequately fund an innovative intervention for LACs across a sensible area effectively bonded against the savings in prison places? If there is a pathway modelled out then we can cost against it; we must have evidence about what works. Apart from the heartbreak for the children themselves there is such a waste of potential. I will share this with my local MP......
Chair Of The Board Of Trustees & Director at Dyslexia Foundation
7 年Prof Amanda Kirby a challenging post and one that highlights some of the frustrations many of us working in prisons share. The pipeline from Care to Corrections is enduring despite the huge evidence base on shared risk factors. What is lacking is a political will - tackling the numbers going into care plus significant changes to care system to 'interrupt' the pipeline require investment, cultural change and time! The time it takes is what makes it so unappealing to politicians.
Aileen Hanrahan International Tutor, Coach, Researcher, Reviewer for journals; tutor for children, adults, parents and professionals in SEN
7 年Hi there Amanda. The figures are shocking for a rich country in the 21st Century, and considering how much we know right now, and for decades, yet we still have not made any headway in this problem. I have personal experience of this in my family, so it is something close to my heart. These facts must also be associated with substance abuse and exploitation surrounding addicts trying to maintain their addictions. It is a social epidemic and with recent changes in employment, with zero contract hours working practices- little protection for employees, the chances of dyslexic-dyspraxic people getting a fair chance at part-taking in society with equal rights, living 'economically' sustainable lives and independence, is growing less and less. There does not seem to be the political will to change things. The figures are glaringly obvious, the human waste and heart-ache is so damaging to all of us as a society. We need a commission to change things. The Disability Act has not worked. It relies on individuals to 'stick up' for themselves, mothers become impoverished fighting for their children's lives at school. It puts the burden on dyslexic-dyspraxic people to get their rights via no win no fee solicitors. The majority of cases go under the radar. It is very depressing for any family with children that do not fit in. Thanks for the post Amanda. I wish I had some positive suggestion to make. My research has tried to show the importance of learning writing skills for dyslexic and dyspraxic children and adults, and why the 'social-policy' definitions of dyslexia, that it is 'only' a reading difficulty, and only associated with decoding letters, syllables and words, is contributing to dumbing down the kinds of developments that need to be made in education- policy and training. That is to say, we 'teachers' need a framework for addressing the writing needs of dyslexic-dyspraxic children and adults, which combines the reading development with the writing development needs simultaneously. I believe, after 15 years of teaching dyslexic-dyspraxic adults in university, one-to-one, that approach would get better results. I have built such a framework for teachers like myself. However, I have run my finances and by implication, my life into the ground pursuing that 'campaign'. I need a research grant to continue on and publish my framework in a context where it has any impact. I envisage generating particular packages for teachers. However, I have had nothing but political opposition to my proposal- rocking the boat. Trying to change anything is risky and expensive, without any guarantee that any change will come out of it. Any suggestions would be great. Is there funding for my research out there? Would anyone like to collaborate with me? It is a kind of research funding SOS I am broadcasting on the back of your post. I guess I am saying, I tried to generate some training, going forward, but so far it has bankrupted me. I think I must not be the only one who has found themselves in this position. We need commercial funding from outside the government, not even that much. If it was an APP there would be takers. Regards, Aileen