Why do young people looked after at home (under a Home Supervision Requirement) not flourish at school ?

John Paul Fitzpatrick

Ed. D Student

e-mail:johnpaul.fitzpatrick@strath.ac.uk

Why explore Home Supervision Requirements (HSR) & Education?• Very little prior research about young people looked after at home, particularly from young people’s viewpoint and little focused on educational experience.

• Largest grouping of young people that are looked after are under home supervision (5,437 out of an entire Looked After Children’s population of 16,171).

• Poorest educational outcomes compared to all other looked after children.

Education & Home Supervision: Context Attendance of children

continuously looked after for 12 months (June 2011)

(Scottish Government, 2011)

Education & Home Supervision: Context Exclusion from school (Rate:

per 1,000 children )

(Scottish Government, 2011)

Education & Home Supervision: Context

Source(: Scottish Government, 2011)

Positive Destination Data

(Scottish Government, 2010)

Education & Home Supervision: Context Average tariff score of S4

pupils 2004/05 to 2009/10

(Scottish Government, 2010)

Study Aims & Processes• To explore young people’s views of being under a HSR and their

education through their narratives.

• Empower participants through adopting a narrative interviewing and analysis approach, itself a mechanism for creating agency.

• To make sense of narratives through undertaking thematic analysis to enable drawing of practice recommendations.

• Draw on social capital theory as underpinning theoretical framework/

• Interviewing 23 young people across three local authorities over two depth narrative interviews.

• 1 st interview > transcription > case notes > interactive presentation & feedback > follow up questions

Methodology - Why Narrative?• Narrative approach– aiming to develop a shared imagination with

participants, a process which itself “creates ‘a space beyond the immediate confines of the local” (Gustavson & Cytrynbaum, 2003, p. 13)

• Narrative inquiry remains particularly useful for studies examining experiences of stress and coping (Hauser, Golden, & Allen, 2006), - stories are commonly used to describe life transitions illuminating the ways critical events bring understanding and shape behavior (Webster & Mertova, 2007)

Progress & Challenges• 23 first round interviews completed, six second round interviews

completed.

• Working with ‘Gatekeepers’ (or around. Or over. Or beside)!

• Need for utter reflexivity.

• Young people, temporality & reflection.

• Narrative interviewing & young people.

• Relationship building.

• Staying congruent with young people.

• Dealing with adult perceptions.

• Recognising the absence of data, is data itself!

David’s Story

Early Findings

• Reasons for being under the supervision requirement were varied. Most had been placed under the requirement for reasons of their non attendance at school. Others were for reasons of care and protection or in a few cases for young people's offending behaviour. One young person interviewed had 17 crime files.

• Continuity and stability, both of family and professional relationships, are important. Young people expressed frustration at a lack of continuity in their lives of professionals who understand their views and needs, necessitating multiple retelling of their stories and views.

• Young people often do not understand the intent behind, or the implications of, an HSR.

Early Findings

• Many young people value the structure and support that an HSR provides and feel they had derived benefit from the support.

• Young people looked after at home value informal coaching, mentoring and support mechanisms when subject to an HSR.

• Many of the young people in the study felt that there was little support or encouragement or value attached to education in the family home; for others it was seen as a vehicle for securing a positive future job through further education or training.

• Most of the young people in the study were not optimistic about their future prospects - and indeed appeared to have a poverty of aspiration.

Early Findings

A final thought

• For most of the young people in the study, members of family appeared to have strong influence on young people’s actions, particularly older siblings with a strong bond and trust.

• Early findings suggest that family support is critical to young people’s educational progress and that more should be done in order to support young people in their whole family context.

• Greater attention needs to be paid to young people’s support needs during transition periods from primary to secondary; failure to meet these needs combined with instability in the family home is often a catalyst for non-attendance and exclusion from school.