Examination of Witnesses (Questions 277-279)
PROFESSOR MIKE
STEIN, MARTIN
HAZLEHURST, JOHN
HILL AND
STEVE HILLMAN
2 JUNE 2008
Q277 Chairman: I welcome our witnesses—Steve
Hillman, Martin Hazlehurst, John Hill and Mike Stein—[Interruption.]
I am sorry: I checked outside with Professor Stein, and he told
me it was pronounced "Steen" rather than "Stine",
but I still got it wrong. Welcome to our inquiry about looked-after
children. I thank the witnesses very much for coming and for giving
us evidence. I am taking the seat that is usually filled so admirably
by my colleague, Barry Sheerman, who is unable to be with us.
I am sorry about the small number of Members here today. It is
a reflection of the fact that we are just back from a recess;
please do not think that it is a reflection of the fact that we
do not take your evidence, which will give us a particular insight,
very seriously. If it is all right with the witnesses, I shall
call them by their first names rather than saying "Professor
Stein", because I shall be less likely to make an error.
It would be helpful if we started with each witness—without
repeating his biography—giving us the most important message
from their experience, research or work regarding children leaving
care. What can get the best outcomes? What can help these children
to face the adult world successfully? What are we doing right?
What are we doing wrong? What should we do more of? What should
we do less of? If the witnesses can just give an account of the
most important things, it would be a good place to start.
Professor Stein: We know from
a lot of research studies that how young people progress after
they leave care is associated with three main areas, the first
of which is the quality of care that they have experienced. That
includes, in particular, whether they have had stability while
they have been looked after and whether attention has been paid
to their well-being and education. Quality of care is critical.
The second main area that influences how young people progress
is the age at which they leave care, as well as how prepared and
ready they are for leaving care. A lot of evidence shows that
young people who leave care later and who have had gradual transitions
during their journey to adulthood cope better than those who leave
younger, experience a lot of disruption and are not ready to leave.
Thirdly, we know that how young people cope is influenced by the
range and quality of services that they receive after they leave
care. Evidence suggests that the range and quality are both important.
Those dimensions could include very important practical areas
of support, such as financial and housing support, as well as
addressing young people's needs for emotional and personal support.
Studies have also shown that young people who leave care are not
a homogenous group and that they progress at different rates.
That depends on a number of factors, such as their different needs.
For example, there are large differences in the care population
among young people with complex needs, such as profound learning
difficulties or emotional and behavioural problems. A second point
depends on their family background and the extent of abuse, neglect
or ill treatment that they might have experienced, or their troubles
settling in at school. Linked to that are their starting points
on entry to care, which may vary considerably between different
groups of young people as they enter the care system.It is a central
area of concern that we should measure the progress that young
people make, rather than just focusing on normative outcome measures
at single points in time. I shall be happy to return to that,
if appropriate.
Q278 Chairman: Thank you, Mike,
for giving us a clear summary based on your research. John, you
run projects for Rainer. What have they led you to think?
John Hill: I speak in part from
my experience in a local authority, as well as in research and
development projects for Rainer on improving outcomes. The two
key factors that have come from our work during the past two years
are borne out by a lot of our experience. We have identified factors
that made a difference, such as what young people felt made a
difference for them in terms of success, and whether that was
borne out by our work with local authorities on whether such factors
were relevant. One factor was the quality of the relationship
of a child or young person with a small number of key individuals,
such as the carer, personal adviser or social worker. The second
factor was that they felt cared for and that the process of care
left them feeling cared for. We identified that those factors
underpinned success in all areas of their lives. I picked those
two things out because the challenge for all of us involved in
the work of exploring how to improve outcomes is to get local
authorities, which are large bureaucracies that provide support
to whole communities, to make individual young people feel cared
for, and to provide the key, fully empowered people to form the
necessary relationships for care to succeed. I shall stop there,
because the rest of my remarks will come in answer to further
questions.
Martin Hazlehurst: I, Mike and
others have been in this game—trying to improve services
for young people who are leaving care—for a long time, during
which we had the Children Act 1989, which imposed duties on local
authorities for the first time. After 1997, we had the Children
(Leaving Care) Act 2000, the quality protects initiative and homelessness
legislation that gave young people priority need, and now we have
Care Matters and the Children and Young Persons Bill. Those
things have created a pretty strong framework. Although there
are ways in which the latter two could be improved—perhaps
we will get the chance to say something about that—the legislative
and policy framework is not bad. As time has gone on, legislation
has been developed well in line with current thinking. However,
we are still talking about how to improve outcomes. Outcomes have
improved since the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000. More young
people are in education and suitable accommodation—I should
like to say more on that later—but we are hoping to improve
things further and to get care leavers closer to the kinds of
life chances that other young people get. We were told that you
were interested in how to get the performance and delivery of
services in every local authority up to the same level as local
authorities that are doing well. That inconsistency of service
is important. Similarly to what John said, we are clear about
what young people want: stability when they are in or leaving
care; close relationships with one or two people; obviously, planning
and preparation work that treats them as individuals rather than
as part of a system; support to get the education and jobs that
they want; and good accommodation that will support them and give
them a platform from which to make their way in adult life. The
key question is how we convert what we have and know into high-quality
services. We can talk about some of the levers that we might use
later, but that is the key question.
Q279 Chairman: Steve, the Foyer
Federation knows lots about young people's life chances.
Steve Hillman: That is right,
and the feedback that I will give is based on evidence given to
me by some of our members who have close relationships—contractual
or otherwise—with their local leaving care teams. In some
respects, the three things that I identify echo the comments made
by colleagues. First, stability and consistency has come out as
being a very important factor in successful outcomes for young
people leaving care. Secondly and similarly, the quality of support
from a trusted adult—someone who can model the unconditional
regard and consistent support of a parent—has been identified
as incredibly important. Thirdly, members of our network have
identified the factor of support in developing the independent
living skills that are necessary for making a successful transition
into adult life. Many of us take for granted such things as cookery,
budgeting, knowing what is expected in the workplace, and developing
the kind of self-confidence and self-esteem to be able to enter
education and training in the first place. The quality and consistency
of support to develop such independent living skills are enormously
important, according to our feedback.
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