Nobody Ever Told Us School Mattered

This publication from BAAF (British Association for Adoption and Fostering) comprises 16 articles covering a myriad of themes around the subject of education and the 'looked after' population.

It covers an impressive range of subjects including: the historical background to the role of education for young people in the care system; directing social work attention to education; the education of black and minority ethnic children in care and the implications of current educational policies for looked after children.

As the editor of the anthology states: "School is a central experience of all our childhoods. It has enormous power to make us happy or miserable and to shape our views of ourselves."

I think this book is accessible to all audiences: Its topic is something all potential readers can relate to whether it be in a professional, research or personal capacity; in addition the style of the book, broken into short 'chunks' one can 'dip' into, increases its overall appeal.

As a researcher on a national foster care project, I looked specifically at the chapter dealing with the education of foster children.

Not doing very well at school is associated with social and economic deprivation, the authors (Heath A; Colton M; Aldgate J.) looked at a sample of children (aged eight to 14 years) who were in foster placements and compared their experience with those of a group of children living with their birth families but who were receiving support from social services.

They tested to see if the children in foster care did better at school than their peers. This study found that the children living in foster homes, were not catching up with the national average as might have been expected.

This article is relatively short in length but quite densely written with a lot of statistical terminology. But it is possible to read around this and concentrate on what the authors are saying about the children.

In the article, I concentrated on the point which was made loud and clear and is repeated throughout the book: the education of looked after children is a subject which has been neglected for too long.

This anthology is timely. The fact that children in care are not doing very well at school is something that can no longer be ignored. Social services performance indicator figures show that in 1999/2000 only 30 per cent of young people over 16 leaving care had even one GCSE pass, compared with 95 per cent in the population as a whole.

The need to improve educational outcomes for children in care is firmly echoed in the aims of Quality Protects, the Government's initiative to improve the management and delivery of children's social services.

Indeed the fourth objective for children's social services is: "To ensure that children looked after gain maximum life chance benefits from educational opportunities, health care and social care"

My one concern in recommending this book to all audiences is that it may not cover the issue closest to oneself. As someone with an interest in issues concerning disabled children I was keen to read about the experiences of disabled children in schools and these were lacking. Some of the articles were written a number of years ago and so may seem dated.

A new Quality Protects research evaluation recently announced by the Department of Health makes education one of the central themes for investigation.

This initiative may add to the themes brought out by this comprehensive anthology and give further much needed insight into the diverse way looked after children experience (or experienced) their schooling.

Nobody Ever told us School Mattered: Raising the educational attainments of children in care', edited by Sonia Jackson is published by BAAF.

Reviewed by Claire Baker a researcher at the Social Work Research and Development Unit at the University of York