“Theresa May is my mum!”

I was somewhat startled by these words from the young man in front of me, particularly as he was addressing an invited audience at our local university at the time.

But it made sense: he had grown up in care and was alluding to the fact that, for children in care, the state is effectively their parent. Thus, our political leader has the distinction of being “mum” to the 73,000 looked-after children in this country. As if she didn’t have enough to worry about.

The man went on to discuss the importance of education and how the support of a consistent adult - sometimes lacking throughout his childhood - is so critical to success. He spoke about parents and teachers, and how we strive to give our children the very best of all we have to give.

His words were pertinent because he was speaking at the fourth-year launch of a project that aims to ensure that looked-after children, or LAC, have these benefits. The project is called Aspire2Uni and there are some excellent lessons that schools can learn from this initiative.

Local authorities work extremely hard to maximise the life chances of the young people in their care. They appoint a “virtual school head”, who leads on promoting the educational achievement of LAC, and things are slowly getting better. Despite this, however, only around 6 per cent of care leavers go on to university, compared with almost 50 per cent of the general population. Life chances are statistically far worse for LAC than they are for other young people.

In 2015, the University of Wolverhampton plotted an innovative solution. It teamed up with four “virtual schools”, which coordinate educational services for LAC: Sandwell, Staffordshire, Wolverhampton and Walsall. Along with the Creating Chances charity, Aspire2Uni was born.

A2U (as we like to call it) is a long-term, intensive support programme designed to raise the aspirations and achievements of children in care. As the virtual head for City of Wolverhampton Council, I oversee the project on the council’s behalf. Now in its fourth year, the initiative has been highly commended in national awards and is firmly embedded within our wider strategies for raising the achievement of children in care.

It was also conceived as an action research project, posing two key questions: (1) how can we best raise the attainment of LAC?; and (2) if those with academic potential are given access to a consistent programme of support and enrichment, including regular exposure to the university world, how many could ultimately progress to higher education? Might we be able to close the attainment gap and smash that shocking 6 per cent statistic?

The programme targets those reaching the expected attainment in core subjects at the end of key stage 2, or who had the potential to reach that level but perhaps underachieved. We began with one cohort of about 30 pupils in Year 7 and now have approximately 130 children across cohorts in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10.

A2U has three main elements:

Outreach: Pupils spend at least one day at the university each term. Activities range from study skills to sporting competitions, from science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) days to creative arts. Experiences are carefully designed to raise aspirations, break down barriers and build key skills. Summer schools and revision camps provide further support around assessments and often-tricky holiday times.

Mentoring: Each child is allocated a mentor with whom they meet on a weekly or fortnightly basis. We employ undergraduates from the university - carefully selected, trained and supervised - for this role. Mentoring really is at the core of the programme. A2U coordinator Mel Harris describes it as “the glue that binds the project together”. Mentoring sessions usually take place in the child’s home, helping to engage their foster carers and home network (which is critical to success). Children also take part in group mentoring sessions and stay in touch with their mentors via a secure online portal.

Insight into work and enrichment: Working with local businesses, the Creating Chances Trust raises funds and arranges high-quality, bespoke work placements. It also organises enrichment experiences to broaden children’s horizons and build their confidence. A jaunt to the West End to see School of Rock went down particularly well last year.

Admittedly, A2U wasn’t the first or only project of its kind. However, it’s fair to say that it is one of the most successful and long-lasting.

In 2017, 32 per cent of LAC, nationally, achieved the expected attainment in core subjects at the end of KS2. Some 17 per cent attained GCSEs in English and maths at grade 4 or above. Alongside the clear attainment gap between LAC and their peers, these outcomes also show how attainment drops between Year 6 and Year 11.

We recently analysed the current attainment of the 18 A2U participants from Wolverhampton: 72 per cent were at the expected standard in both English and maths - an exceptional outcome that puts these children broadly in line with all pupils nationally. Furthermore, the Year 10 cohort is doing just as well as those at KS3.

Of course, the comparison with LAC averages is skewed by the fact that these pupils all attained the expected standard at KS2, so our figures don’t include the significant proportion of children with SEND, for instance.

However, if we take the current Year 11 (who weren’t involved in A2U) as a control group, and remove the pupils without an identified SEND, we find that only a very small percentage were at the expected standard. Admittedly, we would expect their performance to improve by the summer - these pupils are all supported and Wolverhampton is usually above average for LAC attainment. Sadly, however, I would bet my house on the proportion being significantly less than 72 per cent.

Feedback from all stakeholders is providing further evidence of the scheme’s positive impact. Based on recent consultation with the whole A2U cohort:

* 86 per cent of pupils felt that their attitude to learning had improved owing to the programme.

* More than half felt that their ability in English and maths had improved, while 86 per cent had noticed improvements in other subjects.

* Students’ confidence had also improved significantly. The vast majority intended to go on to university and 85 per cent felt they were currently “on track” for that (if pupils decide that HE probably isn’t for them, but want to continue with the programme, that’s fine; we’ll keep supporting them toward another positive destination).

A2U is not a panacea, and I’m not suggesting that we have got everything right. A few pupils have dropped out. Some benefited from mentoring for a couple of years and then decided that they no longer wanted or needed that one-to-one (though they often continued with other elements of the programme). Keeping all the project partners continually engaged has been a challenge.

Overall, however, the A2U team can celebrate some really exciting successes. We’re finding that a range of positive and challenging experiences, regular exposure to the HE environment and the consistent support of adults with high aspirations for the children has the power to be transformative.

Our hope is that these lessons will knock on and have a ripple effect, influencing interventions and gaining support from schools across the country. We believe that this approach really can work.

Darren Martindale is the virtual school head for Wolverhampton

This article originally appeared in the 15 February 2019 issue under the headline “Let’s aspire to give children in care a better start in life’