Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
News
Original poster

gov fails children in care

12 replies

hitchcock · 21/09/2006 22:33

in the news today there was a report that was releasted(sp) it stated that the gov was failing children in care, for example out of 6,000 children that leave care eaach yr 4.500 will leave with out qualifacations. 1/5 will be homeless why is this???????

i left care in 1989 some 17yrs ago and nothing has changed in that time. i was consulted in regards the 1990 childrens act which at the time i was told would help other kids i dont think it has....

i have watched the news today and it has not been mentioned once in any of it bullentins why is that?????

does no one care about these kids????

they are our future and we should be giving them all the chances poss not throwing them away...

OP posts:
sorrell · 21/09/2006 22:44

I agree with you. It is a national tragedy and breaks my heart.

Original poster
hitchcock · 21/09/2006 22:47

it should not happen
nothing has changed in 17 fucking yrs im so mad why cant the gov get off its arse and actully do something about this problem no kid should be leaving care with no where to go no child should be leaving care with no qualifications,

OP posts:
sorrell · 21/09/2006 22:49

Saw a very interesting article on this saying it was all to do with money. If a kid with no parents goes to university, the local council pays for it. If the kid goes to prison, the gvmt pays for it, so it's 'better' for a child to go to prison than university as far as the local budgets go. Disgusting, isn't it?

Original poster
hitchcock · 21/09/2006 22:52

the council will only pay for a child for 1yr to go to uni after that they are on there own!!! how ever only 1500 lids are leaving care with any qualifications and very few with any a or bs so what about the other 4500 that leave care?????

OP posts:
Original poster
hitchcock · 21/09/2006 22:57

should have said kids not lids

OP posts:
rbj949703 · 22/09/2006 00:46

I left care when I was 18½, in 1985. I was lucky that the children's home I lived in had a 'granny flat' attached, so I lived there until I found somewhere else to live. I eventually moved in with a local family, that was my first chance to live with a family that cared about me and treated me as a member of their family.

I was one of the lucky ones, but only just. I failed my o'levels and if my school hadn't been introducing a business studies diploma into the 6th form that year I would have left with nothing. So, I stayed on for one year and passed my diploma with flying colours. My sister and I were the lucky ones, but most of the children in the home left school with little or no qualifications, some have still made a success of their lives, I know one girl did actually end up as a single teenage mum and has been in prison at least twice. Her son was taken from her and put into the same system that had failed her.

I have always worked, and am a happy wife and mother of 3 gorgeous children. I am a governor at my son's school and am thinking of volunteering as the governor for 'Looked after Children' which we have to appoint in our next curriculum committee meeting. I will probably tell the committee why I'm volunteering - first hand experience of the system.

I have absolutely no doubt that had my sister and I not been taken into care, we would have ended up unemployed, pregnant, countless kids and unhappy. We have both worked extremely hard to have the lives we have, and not end up in the same sorry circle that our mother was in, neither of us have spoken to her for over 16 years.

Hopefully, the Every Child Matters agenda will bring about some changes, but it's going to take a LONG time, with a great deal of time, effort and resources.

SofiaAmes · 22/09/2006 05:27

I have had a bit of experience with children in care and I think the biggest problem is that they don't have parents or someone to act as their parent. In my experience these kids can barely manage normal everyday things like getting a bus pass because no one is there to guide them through it. How on earth does the govt think these same kids are going to be successful in school. Someone has to be there everyday going through homework and helping and encouraging and guiding. My dh went into care at the age of 12 and essentially never had any useful schooling after that. He has just recently (he is now 45) gone back to school, finished college and is now in his 2nd year of an HND.

I (3 uni degrees and family full of academics) have had to help him through all of his studies with things that I would have thought before this experience were absolutely basic concepts. Stuff that I just took for granted, like how to look up a piece of information in the index of a book. How to write an essay. (First time he had to write one we had a huge fight because he kept saying that he had to write a report not an essay and why did I keep trying to get him to read an essay writing help book). How to do a rough draft. What was acceptable to hand in to the teacher. He didn't know how to pace himself and how to lay out his work. He didn't know how to take notes in class or study for an exam. Although my parents may not have specifically taught me all of these kinds of things, they certainly guided and helped me to figure them out.
We had one poor boy who worked for my dh who kept arriving in the filthiest clothes because no one had taught him how to use a washing machine and he was 17 and living in a halfway care house.
Until kids in care are placed with loving caring families on a regular basis, I don't think they will ever manage in large numbers to succeed in school.

Original poster
hitchcock · 22/09/2006 08:50

im glad that both of you did so very well .

but the report also stated that many kids stated that noone had been to a parents evening , a sports day or had anyone helping them with their homework,

i dont think its any wounder that that these very vunarable children/young people are leaving with nothing.

if we dont help thesse kids then the circle wont be broken and it will happen again and again.

i feel very passionatly about this as i am one of the kids that was ment to be given a better chance in life, i have to say that i hate to think what their worst is if my experience is their best.

OP posts:
FioFio · 22/09/2006 08:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster
hitchcock · 22/09/2006 08:57

no not really but after 17yrs i would have thught they would have started to get things right . nothing has changed since i left care and thats wrong it should have .

OP posts:
FluffyCharlotteCorday · 22/09/2006 09:26

The phrase "looked after" children drives me up the wall, it's such newspeak, as children in care are so obviously not looked after, in the main.

TBH it's one of the reasons I always feel really ambivalent about whether you should report abuse. When people say "of course you should report it, the child should be taken away from its parents", I always think, what's the point of taking a child away from its parents if the life it will have, is going to be worse or no better than if it remained in an abusive family.

And I agree that after more than a century of acceptance of the principle that the state has the right to interfere with family life where a child is being seriously neglected or worse, the state really ought to be serving those most vulnerable children better. It's an absolute disgrace what they're being doled out.

Original poster
hitchcock · 22/09/2006 21:04

i dont think you could call it "looked after" can you ????

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page