Looked After Children

Image of students and tutorChildren in care are five times less likely to achieve five good GCSE grades, nine times more likely to be excluded from school and six times less likely to enter higher education than their peers. Under the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 (CLCA) local authorities have a statutory obligation to provide financial and personal support up to the age of 24 for young people formerly in care and who are in full-time education. The Children Act 2004 laid a duty on local authorities to promote the educational achievement of children they look after – and this should mean all the way through to higher education.

Universities and cross-sector partnerships such as Aimhigher, Social Services, Connexions workers, and charitable organisations, all provide support for this group of learners to experience, have aspirations toward, and succeed in higher education.

Universities operate outreach schemes with personalised support for learners leaving care and, especially those with the Charter Mark, have established strong relationships with local authorities (replaces social services). Many Aimhigher partnerships have projects designed to encourage, to inform and to support looked after children into further and higher education. Many resources have been produced for example, the excellent leaflet produced by the Aimhigher Peninsular partnership, ‘Am I Bothered?’, available to download in PDF pdf, which sets out the financial and structural support provided for a young person leaving care and considering applying to university or to further education college. Other resources and activities can be discovered by contacting local Aimhigher Partnerships, and support schemes from local universities.

The Frank Buttle Trust is a key organisation providing information on their own support to learners, general information on leaving care situations, and a set of influential commissioned report. The Frank Buttle Trust has entered into a Charter Mark arrangement with over seventy five English Universities and three Scottish Universities. The Charter Mark recognises those institutions that go the extra mile both in attracting, recruiting, crucially supporting and retaining learners leaving care situations.

Since December 2006 the Office for Fair Access has offered specific guidance on support for care leavers including advice on applying for the Quality Mark. See: http://www.offa.org.uk/guidance-notes/looked-after-children-laccare-leavers/

In 2010 The Frank Buttle Trust and Action on Access produced a Quality Mark: Practice Guide pdf to be used to inform institutions yet to apply for the quality market, as well as consolidate the practice of those which have it.

Financial support
Maintenance Grant and Bursaries.
Children leaving care are entitled for each year at university to a full (non-repayable) maintenance grant(equivalent to the£2,765 available in 2009/10) and at least £300 from the university as a (non-repayable) Bursary. There may be other additional relevant bursaries available at some universities and learners or those who support them would need to contact universities directly or look at their websites to see what is available.

Local Authority Support
Local authorities are key to success in supporting care leavers and looked-after children into and through HE and crucial in helping to identify looked-after children and care leavers. Local authorities are all different and have different arrangements for looked-after children and care leavers despite a national policy framework. There is a need for HEIs to understand the different roles and functions within local authorities’ looked-after children education services, virtual head teachers, leaving care teams, and the need to establish effective ways of working with them. The web site of the National Care Advisory Service contains details of the legal requirements of local authorities in the United Kingdom with respect to looked after children and care leavers. It also has the contact details of the chairs of regional Care Leaving Forums in the UK through whom individual local authorities can be contacted and provides a search facility for the contact details of local authority lead officers for care leavers in England. See: http://www.leavingcare.org/

From August 2009 care leavers in England going into HE are entitled to a bursary of a minimum of £2,000 from their local authority in addition to any existing support.

We would be most grateful if you could send us any examples of successful work being carried out with children leaving care so that we might use our website to showcase it for other practitioners. Please email us at info@actiononaccess.org

Useful Downloads

  • Frank Buttle Trust and Action on Access 'Quality Mark: A Practice Guide' PDF pdf
  • Aimhigher Kent and Medway have produced a 'Guide to Further and Higher Education for Young People Leaving Care in Kent and Medway'. Read More pdf
  • Care Matters: Transforming the Lives of Children and Young People in Care, 2006 - Download in PDF pdf
  • Care Matters: Time for Change, the white paper, June 2007 - Download in PDF pdf
  • Going to University From Care, 2005 - Download in PDF pdf
  • Transforming key adults' perspectives on university education for looked after children and young people: The LACHE Report - Download in PDF pdf
  • Aimhigher Kent and Medway have produced a 'Guide to Further and Higher Education for Young People Leaving Care'. Read More pdf