Can boarding school provide the consistency of care that local authorities lack?

Schools Minister Lord Adonis has spoken out in favour of using boarding schools to bring some stability into both the home and educational lives of children being looked after by local authorities.

Lord Adonis dismissed ideas that this could be an answer for the great majority of 'looked-after' children but suggested boarding school could be a solution for the particular needs of some of these young people.

Using boarding schools to complement local authority care is not a new solution. The idea was suggested by the Independent Schools Council and the Boarding Schools Association in 2001 and, at the time, won the backing of all three main political parties.

Nearly half of young people living with their own families go on to university whereas fewer than one in 100 children leaving care do so*.

Around 13% of children in care change both home and school three times a year and according to the recent Barnardos 'Failed by the System' report, this is adversely affecting their performance at school. Nearly eight out of 10 'looked-after' children leave school without gaining any qualifications at all.

It's indisputable that something needs to be done to help these children reach their academic potential. Whether boarding school is the answer remains to be seen, and we can be certain that this is only the beginning of the debate.

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*Source: Going to University from Care by Sonia Jackson, Sarah Ajayi and Margaret Quigley for the Frank Buttle Trust 2005

**Source: Social Exclusion Unit 2006