Pair’s success is inspiration to kids in care
WOMEN AIM TO PROVE THAT YOUNGSTERS CAN GET INTO UNIVERSITY
TWO women who grew up in care are hoping to inspire others in their position after ending up with university educations on the road to success.
Josie Fletcher is on track to gain a top degree while Rebecca Southworth is working as a filmmaker for a television production company after graduating with first-class honours.
Both women have beaten odds which suggest university is mostly out of the reach of young people who have grown up in care.
Latest statistics show teenagers leaving local authority care in Manchester are seven times less likely to study for a degree.
Last year just 12 Mancunian care leavers out of 160 went on to higher education, according to figures from the Department for Education.
This compares with almost half of their peers from the city who went on to some form of higher education.
In Salford it was even less with just a handful of the 55 19-year-old care leavers in higher education.
Filmmaker Rebecca, 23, recently made a BBC Three programme about the struggles faced by other care leavers.
Taken into care by loving foster parents at the age of 13 after being abused by a relative, Rebecca remembers her teenage years as ‘very chaotic and frantic.’ She admits that education was the last thing on her mind.
“It was the stable influence at home that eventually pinned me down,” she says. “But to be honest I never thought that far ahead to university. Everything was changing so much that all you could think about was the ‘now.’”
Rebecca started university at the age of 18 but recognises that her experience is very rare.
“I don’t think it’s that care leavers don’t have the desire to go to uni but at 18 you have to leave care,” she says. “People aren’t ready to leave and it’s so heartbreaking. If they just had more time in care it might be different.
“Compared to other care leavers I was the lucky one to go to uni. But compared to other people my age I was far from lucky.
“I would say to anyone in care now that they should not let the stigma define them before they even start. It’s hard and it probably will get harder but it’s all worthwhile.”
Josie, 22, is currently in her final year of an accountancy and finance degree at the University of Salford.
She went to live with a foster family at the age of nine after her own parents struggled to care for her but she stayed in touch with them. Both her foster carers and parents encouraged her to aspire to higher education.
“Turning 18 and making those decisions about your accommodation, career and starting to make money to pay your way is quite daunting,” she says.
“I’m quite confident and had good foster parents but even I was worrying about it. I was thinking ‘who is going to help me?.’ I thought I wouldn’t be able to afford it.
“Without the charity Next Steps supporting me I doubt I would have gone to uni.
“It’s important for local authorities to tell kids about their options. From a young age they should be able to aspire..”
After a sandwich year spent at Salford City Council Josie is now studying for her final exams.
She said: “I want to show kids in care that you can do it if you get on with it. You will make something of yourself.”
Arron Pile, chairman of the National Network for the Education of CareLeavers, said: “We had one care leaver whose career adviser had told them ‘children like you don’t go to university.’ Those kind of attitudes can make it hard.”
Kicked Out: From Care to Chaos will air on BBC Three from this Thursday.