Young people with care backgrounds are a priority group for targeted support to increase their access to further and higher education. Unfortunately, national data confirms that young people with care experience achieve significantly lower educational outcomes than their non-care experienced peers.
Of the 10,000 young people leaving local authority care each year, only 14 per cent go to university by the time they are 19 and, once there, 36 per cent drop out, compared with 6 per cent of those without care experience.
While there are many individual examples of impactful and effective practice to drive up educational achievement for care leavers, the challenge remains to build a UK-wide, high-impact and consistent offer of support. This slow progress to educational parity for vulnerable young people is why, at the National Network for the Education of Care Leavers (NNECL), we’re excited for our partnership with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA).
Following a successful pilot, the GMCA has committed to becoming the first combined authority where all sixth forms, colleges and universities in the region are inclusive learning environments for people with care experience, demonstrated by achieving the NNECL Quality Mark.
This bold action signals GMCA’s commitment to breaking down barriers to educational opportunity and building a society that supports the aspiration of every young person, regardless of their background.
Universities and colleges that gain our Quality Mark have demonstrated that they have caring, holistic and practical processes in place, including within the senior leadership team, to support students with care backgrounds so they are able to thrive while learning.
Building on the Care Leaver Covenant, encompassing the Gatsby Benchmarks and reflecting institutions’ own access and participation plans, Quality Mark holders have put in place actions to tackle the well-evidenced impact of early childhood trauma, the stark difference in educational attainment between children in care and their peers, disrupted education and school moves, low aspiration from key influencers in a young person’s network, and financial exclusion. As someone with lived experience of being in care, I recognise these hurdles well.
By working with all of Greater Manchester’s post-16 learning spaces, we’re building a strong and connected network of young people with care experience (a cohort of around 300 pupils), in an economic and pragmatic way.
With the support of their corporate parents, young people with care experience in Greater Manchester will be able to access the dedicated support and guidance they need, when they need it, so they can flourish, achieve their full educational potential, and go on to successful and rewarding careers that will sustain them for life.
All of us at NNECL are incredibly proud of the Quality Mark, which was cited as good practice in Josh MacAlister MP’s ‘Independent review of children’s social care’ in 2022.
We will be publishing an independent evaluation of the Quality Mark in the next few weeks, as well as continuing to work with our dedicated members across the UK who share NNECL’s ambition – to deliver positive lifelong change for young people with care backgrounds.
- The National Network for the Education of Care Leavers (NNECL) is a UK-wide charity dedicated to transforming the educational outcomes of young people with experience of being in care.