Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T18:35:20.320Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The educational outcomes of children in care – a scoping review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2020

Stephan Lund Open the ORCID record for Stephan Lund [Opens in a new window]  and
Cathy Stokes
Stephan Lund*
Affiliation:
Discipline of Social Work and Social Policy, School of Allied Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Cathy Stokes
Affiliation:
Discipline of Social Work and Social Policy, School of Allied Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Stephan Lund, Email [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article presents a brief scoping review of the literature on the educational outcomes of care experienced children and young people in Australia published since 2010. The review also examines key educational issues and the impact of being in care on the educational experience of children and young people. Twenty-five papers were selected for review, key information extracted and recurrent themes noted. Themes include stigma and low expectations, school disruption and absenteeism, issues within the care and education systems and the importance of good relationships with supportive adults. The review found that young people in care often experience much worse educational outcomes than their peers. Conclusions and recommendations include reforming the care and education systems, focussing workers on building strong supportive relationships with young people, helping them to build resilience and prioritising education. Further targeted research is also recommended.

Keywords

scoping reviewchildren in careout-of-home care
Type
Articles
Information
Children Australia , Volume 45 , Special Issue 4: Special Issue: Poverty and Child Abuse , December 2020 , pp. 249 - 257
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arksey, H., & O’Malley, L. (2005). Scoping studies: Towards a methodological framework. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8, 9–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000119616 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies (2017). SNAPSHOT Educational engagement of children and young people in out of home care in NSW. Preliminary findings. https://www.acwa.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ACWA_Education_OOHC_Snapshot_Preliminary_Roundtable_For_Release.pdf Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2007). Educational outcomes of children on guardianship or custody orders: A pilot study. Child Welfare Series no. 42. Cat. no. CWS 30. AIHW.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2011). Educational outcomes of children under guardianship or custody orders: A pilot study, Stage 2. Child welfare series no. 49. Cat. no. CWS 37. AIHW.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2015). Educational outcomes for children in care: Linking 2013 child protection and NAPLAN data. Cat. no. CWS 54. AIHW.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2020). Child protection Australia 2018–19. Child welfare series no. 72. Cat. no. CWS 74. AIHW.Google Scholar
Cashmore, J., Paxman, M., & Townsend, M. (2007). The educational outcomes of young people 4–5 years after leaving care. Adoption & Fostering, 31(1), 50–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colquhoun, H., Levac, D., O’Brien, K, Straus, S., Tricco, A., Perrier, L., Kastner, N., & Moher, D. (2014). Scoping reviews: Time for clarity in definition, methods, and reporting. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 67, 1291–1294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2014.03.013 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crawford, M., Tilbury, C., Creed, P., & Buys, N., (2011). The role of carers and caseworkers in the school-to work transition of young people in care. Australian Social Work, 64(4), 459–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CREATE Foundation (2017) CREATE position paper: Stigma in out-of-home care.Google Scholar
Dill, K., Flynn, R., Hollingshead, M., & Fernandes, A. (2012). Improving the educational achievement of young people in out-of-home care. Children and Youth Services Review 34, 1081–1083.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandez, E., (2019). Working towards better education for children in care: Longitudinal analysis of the educational outcomes of a cohort of children in care in Australia. Oxford Review of Education, 45(4), 481–501.Google Scholar
Flynn, R., Marquis, R., Paquet, M., Peeke, L., & Aubry, T. (2012). Effects of individual direct-instruction tutoring on foster children’s academic skills: A randomized trial. Children and Youth Services Review, 34, 1183–1189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forsman, H., & Vinnerljung, B. (2012). Interventions aiming to improve school achievements of children in out-of-home care: A scoping review. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(6), 1084–1091.Google Scholar
Harvey, A., McNamara, P., Andrewartha, L., & Luckman, M. (2015). Out of care, into university: Raising higher education access and achievement of care leavers. Access and Achievement Research Unit. La Trobe University. http://thehomestretch.org.au/site/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Out-of-Care-Into-University.pdf Google Scholar
Harvey, A., Campbell, P., Andrewartha, L., Wilson, J., & Goodwin-Burns, P. (2017). Recruiting and supporting care leavers in Australian higher education. Report for the Australian Government Department of Education and Training. Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research, La Trobe University.Google Scholar
Jackson, S., Ajayi, S., & Quigley, M. (2005). Going to University from Care: Final report. Degrees project. Institute of Education, University of London.Google Scholar
Jackson, S., & Cameron, C. (2011) Final report of the YiPPEE project. Young People from a public care background: Pathways to further and higher education in five European countries. Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London UK. https://bettercarenetwork.org/sites/default/files/attachments/Final%20Report%20of%20the%20YiPEE%20Project.pdf Google Scholar
Jackson, S., & Cameron, C. (2012). Leaving care: Looking ahead and aiming higher. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(6), 1107–1114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jay, M. A., & McGrath-Lone, L. (2019). Educational outcomes of children in contact with social care in England: A systematic review. Systematic Reviews, 8, 155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, L., Dean, C., Dunhill, A., Hope, M. A., & Shaw, P. A. (2020). We are the same as everyone else just with a different and unique backstory’: Identity, belonging and ‘othering’ within education for young people who are ‘looked after. Children & Society, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12382 Google Scholar
KPMG (2010). National standards for out of home care final report. Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.Google Scholar
Lamb, S., Jackson, J., Walstab, A., & Huo, S. (2015). Educational opportunity in Australia 2015: Who succeeds and who misses out. Centre for International Research on Education Systems, Victoria University, for the Mitchell Institute.Google Scholar
Lima, F., Maclean, M., & O’Donnell, M. (2018). Exploring outcomes for children who have experienced out-of-home care. Telethon Kids Institute. https://www.telethonkids.org.au/globalassets/media/documents/projects/developmental-pathways-project/dcpfs-outcomes-report-final.pdf Google Scholar
Luke, N., & O’Higgins, A., (2018). Is the care system to blame for the poor educational outcomes of children looked after? Evidence from a systematic review and national database analysis. Children Australia, 43(2), 135–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacLean, M. J., Taylor, C. L., & O’Donnell, M. (2015). Pre-existing adversity, level of child protection involvement, and school attendance predict educational outcomes in a longitudinal study. Child Abuse and Neglect, 51, 120–131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacLean, M. J., Taylor, C. L., & O’Donnell, M. (2017). Relationship between out-of-home care placement history characteristics and educational achievement: A population level linked data study. Child Abuse and Neglect, 70, 146–159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Matheson, I. (2016). The importance of individual personal factors: The experiences of care leavers who went to university. Developing Practice: The Child, Youth and Family Work Journal, 46, 42–54.Google Scholar
Matheson, I. (2019). Education success factors and barriers: Learning from the experiences of New Zealand care leavers who went to University. In McNamara, T., Wise, S. & Montserrat, C. (Eds.), Education in out-of-home care: International perspectives on policy, practice and research (pp. 267–281). Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDowall, J. J. (2018). Out-of-home care in Australia: Children and young people’s views after five years of National Standards. CREATE Foundation. https://create.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/CREATE-OOHC-In-Care-2018-Report.pdf Google Scholar
McGinn, T., Taylor, B., McColgan, M., & McQuilkan, J. (2016). Social work literature searching: Current issues with databases and online search engines. Research on Social Work Practice, 26(3), 266–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendis, K., Gardner, F., & Lehmann, J. (2015). The education of children in out-of-home care. Australian Social Work, 68, 483–496. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2014.963134 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Higgins, A., Sebba, J., & Gardner, F. (2017). What are the factors associated with educational achievement for children in kinship or foster care: A systematic review. Children and Youth Services Review, 79, 198–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.06.004 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, M., Godfrey, C., McInerney, P., Munn, Z., Tricco, A. C., & Khalil, H. (2020). Scoping reviews. In Aromataris, E. & Munn, Z. (Eds.), Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewer’s Manual, JBI, 2020. https://doi.org/10.46658/JBIMES-20-12 Google Scholar
Sebba, J., Luke, N., & Berridge, D. (2017). The educational progress of young people in out-of-home-care. Developing Practice: The Child, Youth and Family Work Journal, 47, 18–35.Google Scholar
Sebba, J., & Luke, N. (2019). The educational progress and outcomes of children in care: Editorial. Oxford Review of Education, 45(4), 435–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sucharew, H., & Macaluso, M. (2019). Methods for research evidence synthesis: The scoping review. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 14(7), 416–418.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tilbury, C., Creed, P., Buys, N., Osmond, J., & Crawford, M. (2014). Making a connection: School engagement of young people in care. Child & Family Social Work, 19, 455–466. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12045 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Townsend, M. (2012). Are we making the grade?: The education of children and young people in out-of-home care. Research report/NSW Dept. of Family and Community Services. ISBN 9781741901627.Google Scholar
Townsend, M., Cashmore, J., & Graham, A. (2016). Education and out-of-home care transitions. Developing Practice: The Child, Youth and Family Work Journal, 45, 71–85.Google Scholar
Townsend, I. M., Berger, E. P., & Reupert, A. E. (2020). Systematic review of the educational experiences of children in care: Children’s perspectives. Children and Youth Services Review, 111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trout, A., Hagaman, J., Casey, K., Reid, R., & Epstein, M. (2008). The academic status of children and youth in out-of-home care: A review of the literature. Children and Youth Services Review, 30, 979–994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watterson, J., & O’Connell, M. (2019). Those who disappear: The Australian education problem nobody wants to talk about. Melbourne Graduate School of Education. University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
Wilson, J., Harvey, A., & Mendes, P. (2019). Changing lives: Improving care leaver access to higher education. Oxford Review of Education, 45(4), 573–586.Google Scholar
Wise, S., Pollock, S., Mitchell, G., Argus, C., & Farquhar, P. (2010). Care-system impacts on academic outcomes: Research report. Anglicare Victoria and Wesley Mission Victoria.Google Scholar