As a child, I spent six years in care. I left school at 15, became homeless and spent time in prison before returning to education in my early twenties. I went on to gain a master’s degree.

Stories like mine are not ones you’ll hear often. In fact, care-experienced children born in the 1970s - as I was - are more likely to have experienced homelessness, prison, mental health issues, and alcohol and drug problems than to have gained a university qualification. The statistics are staggering, but true: less than 1 per cent of people who had gone through the care system up to the 1990s went on to gain a master’s degree. In contrast, 11 per cent of the general working population of the UK hold a master’s-level qualification.

I take no extra pride in being in the 1 per cent - especially as it involved not a small amount of chance and luck. Most people I met during my childhood who were in a similar situation had specific talents and were easily capable of achieving success. But, shockingly, I know more people from my time in care who have died young than have a university qualification.

Many changes have been put in place since I was at school. In fact, we live in constant flux: initiatives begin and end, policies and laws change, new evidence emerges, acronyms become common parlance (a recent example being ACE or adverse childhood experiences) then fall out of use and “new” statistics get bandied about to serve various agendas.

And it is true that the outlook today for care-experienced children may be somewhat better. But it is still a long way from being acceptable. As one proverb goes, the more things change, the more things stay the same.

See, for example, the low attainment levels of young people who are, or have had, experience of so-called care. Across the UK, these young people currently and historically attain fewer qualifications than their non-care-experienced counterparts. We know that they are no less capable, just as we now know what is needed to change the situation. But progress has been piecemeal and, while there are pockets of good practice, we cannot say with any confidence that the issue has been addressed.

The situation speaks for itself: in Scotland, about 6 per cent of care-leavers go straight to university, whereas 41 per cent of all leavers do. As the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland has recently pointed out, there is more to the story of the educational attainment of care-experienced young people; while the gap is closing, it is still so significant that it should be a cause for concern and an impetus for change.

It is with this in mind that I introduce an idea, one that is limited (initially) to supporting those children who are looked after at home or in kinship care. Why these groups? Because they attain least among all groups in society, and because they are the only ones who do not live with a person who has received at least some training in supporting looked-after children. In other words, they need the support most.

Unequal access to support

I was looked after at home, and I have worked with many young people who were residing amid the same circumstances that led them to be looked after in the first place. Support at this crucial stage can go a long way to helping children make or maintain progress. Infuriatingly, as research has regularly evidenced, the right support is often missing. I have found that the stronger focus on child-protection issues in recent years has, at times, led to the children’s education becoming an afterthought among social services. The excuses of budgetary pressures and a “hierarchy of priorities” often lead to a cycle of crisis intervention; as long as things are not completely out of control, then the situation is considered containable - and deemed “acceptable”.

This “sticking plaster” approach is thwarting a lot of unrealised potential. We should, instead, be giving young people every opportunity to seek a better life for themselves, although how best to do this still has to be worked out.

The idea I would like to see explored is a universal support service for these groups. Currently, each local authority is responsible for providing services for looked-after young people in relation to their educational journey. So services are not the same for each child in every area. Is this right? Shouldn’t it be the case that every child has access to the same level of support, no matter where they live?

While the policies and legislation that govern us are the same for everyone, each local authority interprets how they are implemented, leading to a smorgasbord of services in which some inevitably receive less support than they need (or the wrong support at the wrong time by the wrong people). Schools and colleges, where resources are already stretched, are sometimes left to take up the slack. And, at a time when the issue of the mental health of teachers is under the spotlight, it would be one less thing for them to worry about if there was clarity over whom to contact about a looked-after child in their class. I believe the answer is to provide a personal, education and training-support worker for each child immediately upon them becoming looked after at home or in kinship care.

When we speak of education, we don’t focus solely on formal education; education is simultaneously formal, informal, non-formal and social - and there may even be other categories. Moreover, education and care are inseparable. So it would make sense to provide a support worker who focused on all the facets of education. Someone who could help with homework where necessary and appropriate, and who could access all of the available support to provide the best chance for a good outcome. Someone who would be the link between parents/carers, teachers, schools, colleges and universities, social workers, police, health services, and so on. Does it not seem logical that, for every professional concerned with the education of a young person, a central point of contact would eliminate confusion and the chance of something being missed? Someone whose sole reason for being involved in the child’s life was to ensure the continuation of the educational journey, as it related to all its constituent parts?

Research points to the answer being yes. For example, according to an extensive evaluation of services carried out by the University of Strathclyde, having a person who knows what their role is and exactly why they are there can lead to children being successfully supported with their education.

Time and again, evidence shows the same things are necessary to support young people: a caring and involved individual; consistency; a relational approach (head, heart and hands); targeted educational support (for example, help with homework); practical support; real commitment; access to opportunities; and financial help. Why, then, is there no service that can provide for all of the above? Why are there differences in approach across local authorities?

If this approach has not worked over the past few decades, then it is time to try something new. Let’s put them all together in one service and fund it for 20 years, as a start, and give each and every young person that support immediately upon becoming looked after at home or in kinship care.

What an impact it would have on society if all those children went on to realise their potential. I recently sent a 35,000-word proposal to the Scottish government that provided evidence to suggest why this was a good idea and outlined the proposed service. While I await a response, something is happening in Scotland, something big that has the potential to change things for generations to come. The Independent Care Review is a systematic analysis of the so-called care system that is intended to produce recommendations for the Scottish government. It has the potential to be bigger than the Kilbrandon report of the 1960s, which, although it had a huge effect on how we approach support for children, has not been used in a way to produce the desired outcome - not least, in my view, because the idea for “social educators” to provide the support (as is the case in many European countries) was dropped in favour of social workers. Anyone who knows the descent of social work into managerialism and risk-averse practice may agree that it would have been better to provide both.

Notably, the Care Review has a significant number of people with care experience involved at every level of the process, and this may prove crucial in recommending what is needed. If we are to believe the noises coming from all concerned, then we should be excited about the imminent results. People involved with education are participating in the review, and others are very interested to see what it would mean for their working practices.

Alongside the Care Review, work is being carried out by the foremost charity supporting people with care experience in Scotland, Who Cares? Its aim is to support, inform and complement the work being carried out by the review, by amplifying the voices of people with care experience. Recently, it organised for a group of 40 individuals with care experience, from a variety of backgrounds, to come together with the aim of putting down on paper what a lifetime of equality, respect and love should mean, as it related to the support people received from the care system. Education will necessarily be an important aspect of their work and, as a member of this group, I intend to work to ensure it is considered at every point along the way.

The group is called The Collective - watch out for news because I believe there will be significant changes in education as a result of it amplifying the voices of the care-experienced community.

The Scottish government has put education at the heart of its programme of government, and first minister Nicola Sturgeon has taken an active interest in the process, contacting and supporting care-experienced individuals, attending meeting and events, publicly verbalising a readiness for change. I am positive and hopeful, but will adopt a wait-and-see policy - I have seen others talk the talk before when it comes to supporting change in our education and care systems.

I urge everyone concerned with both education and care to involve themselves in any way they can. This is, without doubt, a truly exciting moment for care-experienced young people. We cannot overemphasise the importance of the work being carried out.

David Anderson teaches social work in France. He was a looked-after child in Scotland for more than six years, and will be returning to the country this year to work with the charity Who Cares? Scotland

This article originally appeared in the 15 February 2019 issue under the headline “Who is looking out for the looked after?”