The care of looked-after children

Summary

Most looked-after children have experienced neglect, abuse, rejection or family breakdown. The legacy can be complex and life-long, influencing emotional and physical wellbeing, social and educational opportunity, effective self-sufficiency, personal relationships and resilience. Adequate attachment is a prerequisite for recovery, and the importance of establishing this should underpin professional care. Poor outcomes for children in care demonstrate the need for improved services, supported by adequate research and by a level of funding that reflects the folly of short-term economy.

Introduction

At any time 0.5% of children in England are looked after by the local authority.¹ This is a constructive choice for some families, perhaps for support in caring for disabled children or during parental illness. However, its enforcement to protect children creates a professional task of daunting responsibility. Corporate parents are poor substitutes for loving families and the professional goal is to enable children to achieve adequate attachment for their safe transition to adulthood. Looked-after children need optimism, opportunity, self-worth and normality, as all do. Achieving these involves counteracting the continuing legacy of inadequate early attachment, its causes, and associated abuse and neglect. Achieving good parenting is difficult when the ‘parent’ comprises numerous individuals and organisations with different professional practices and beliefs. The importance and difficulty of effective communication follow.

Outcomes following local authority care are poor. Over 40% obtain no formal educational qualifications at 16 (compared with 3% overall).² Looked-after young people and those who have been in care are substantially over-represented amongst both victims and perpetrators of crime.³ Thirty percent of young people reported missing are missing from care, particularly residential children's homes, with risk of sexual exploitation, including prostitution.⁴ A third of those who have been in care experience homelessness.³ A recent study suggests that over 35% of girls become mothers while in care or within 2 years of leaving.³ The mothers of over 60% of those adopted from care were in care themselves.⁵ Almost half of looked-after young people have classified mental health problems, particularly conduct disorder, hyperkinetic disorder and emotional disorders, with associated risk of substance abuse.⁶

The Government has defined objectives, targets, and professional roles and responsibilities for improving children's care.⁷ However, realising these requires substantial investment in professional resources and social and educational opportunity. The long-term cost of inadequate, under-resourced care is likely to be high. A climate of financial constraint, with independent funding of the various agencies involved, makes services vulnerable when anticipated outcomes may be a generation and more away and not necessarily within the budget of those currently responsible. The cost is, however, more than financial. The individuals themselves, their children and unrelated members of society frequently pay a high personal price for the inadequacies of corporate care in remedying earlier disadvantage.