Children with social workers behind peers in attainment

Nuffield-funded research has revealed that one in seven of all children in England have a social worker at some stage during their schooling, and are behind educationally by at least 30% by the age of 16 compared to their peers.

The study by the University of Bristol and University of Oxford investigated the educational achievements and progress of children who need a social worker.

Children that have a social worker but usually live with their parents or family have an educational attainment gap, on average, of between 34-46% in their GCSEs. Children who have been in care, who tend to live away from family with foster carers or at a residential home, achieved 53% lower than their peers in their GCSEs.

The research shows that both children in need and children in care had already fallen significantly behind other children at school by the age of seven, lagging by between 14-24% at Key Stage 1.

The report finds that young children, who needed a social worker before the age of seven, achieved better GCSEs if they had experienced a long-term stay in care than those who had not.

Children in need and children in care were more affected by other forms of disadvantage, such as poverty, socio-economic status, special educational needs, and disabilities, which led to lower educational attainment.

Absence, temporary or permanent exclusions, and changing schools at the age of 15 or 16 were other factors shown to worsen academic performance.

A quarter of all children who had ever needed a social worker were still receiving a social work service in the final year of their GCSE exams.

Many parents of children in need interviewed as part of the study said they were living in poverty and struggled to pay for their child’s school needs, such as uniform, computers and internet access. Older children interviewed indicated they liked primary school but regarded secondary schools less favourably, due to their size, complexity and difficulties with teachers.

Professor David Berridge, University of Bristol, who led the research, said: "We were surprised by the numbers of children who needed social work involvement.  There are many policies in place to support the education of children in care and we need much more as well for children in need.  Our research shows that these are a highly vulnerable group, whose family and personal difficulties clearly affect their learning, and require greater support. Our study highlights the importance of effective early intervention, the significance of stability and continuity in children’s everyday care and education, and the need for an inclusive and consistently understanding approach to these children’s difficulties from secondary schools in particular." 

The study analysed anonymised data of all 471,000 children born in England between 2000 and 2001 and tracked their education through to 2017, when they took their GCSEs.