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Early Education as an Intervention for Children in Care

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Education in Out-of-Home Care

Part of the book series: Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research ((CHIR,volume 22))

Abstract

Many children in out-of-home care experience significant early adversity prior to entering care, resulting in poorer educational, socio-emotional and health outcomes which have implications throughout their life trajectory. While the focus is often on children’s school performance and later life chances, cracks in the foundations of learning appear early. Children in care are already behind in their language, psycho-social and neuro-psychological functioning during the pre-school years and have poorer academic and socio-emotional competence on entry to school.

Given strong evidence that attending good quality early years provision can help disadvantaged children catch up with their peers, there is a good reason to believe that the same applies for children in care. Yet relatively little is known about the potential of early education as an intervention for children in care. This chapter reviews available evidence, drawing on a recent small-scale English research study. ‘Starting Out Right’ comprised a purposive review of relevant literature, interviews with a range of experts, and an online survey of English local authorities. This brief overview of study findings provides a summary of the review, followed by a case study of practice and policy in England designed to ensure that children in care have access to good quality early education, highlighting successes and areas for development to consider potential lessons for other countries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For brevity, full references have not been included in this summary but are provided in Starting Out Right (Author et al., 2016). http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/looked-afterchildren-england

  2. 2.

    At the time of writing, while working parents who meet specific income and eligibility criteria are entitled to a further free 15 h for 3 and 4-year-olds, foster carers are not eligible to apply.

  3. 3.

    Disadvantaged children are in fact already disproportionately represented within maintained provision.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Sandra Mathers

Authors
  1. Sandra Mathers
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Correspondence to Sandra Mathers .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Patricia McNamara  & Sarah Wise  & 

  2. Faculty of Education and Psychology, Research Institute on Quality of Life, University of Girona, Girona, Spain

    Carme Montserrat

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Mathers, S. (2019). Early Education as an Intervention for Children in Care. In: McNamara, P., Montserrat, C., Wise, S. (eds) Education in Out-of-Home Care. Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26372-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26372-0_6

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