‘Send foster children to boarding school’
Councils should send foster children to boarding schools, a minister will say today. Lord Agnew, the schools minister, is to unveil a governmentbacked report that shows placing vulnerable youngsters at boarding schools can be “significantly more cost-effective” than keeping them in local authority care. It comes amid a debate about how much the country’s leading private schools should be doing to help educate disadvantaged children.
COUNCILS should send foster children to boarding schools because they can have a “life changing” effect on their future, an education minister will announce today.
Lord Agnew, the schools minister, is to unveil a new Government-backed report that shows that placing vulnerable youngsters at boarding schools can be “significantly more cost-effective” than keeping them in local authority care.
It comes amid a debate about how much the country’s most prestigious private schools should be doing to help educate disadvantaged youngsters.
The report is endorsed by the Boarding Schools Partnership (BSP), a scheme that will see children from vulnerable families enrol at some of Britain’s top boarding schools including Harrow, Rugby and Eton College.
Researchers followed the progress of 52 children over 10 years who were either in care or at risk of being taken into care by Norfolk County Council.
After being sent to a boarding school, almost two thirds of the children (63 per cent) came off the risk altogether while close to three quarters (71 per cent) showed a reduced level of risk. Speaking at the launch of the report today, Lord Agnew will say: “We know that local authorities have to cope with large numbers of vulnerable young people.
“Every young person is different, with particular needs and domestic situations. Any boarding placement needs to be carefully planned, matched and supported, but with the skill and dedication local authorities demonstrate daily, it can be life changing for young people.”
The research will be published today at a conference in Westminster for heads of local councils’ children services. Lord Agnew will urge delegates to consider the results from Norfolk, adding: “It really is an encouraging story and one which, surely, could and should be repeated up and down the country.”
Researchers found that although boarding schools incur the additional cost of fees – ranging between £11,000 for state boarding schools and £35,000 for fee-paying institutions – the longterm effects of these placements can lead to significant cost-cutting for councils over three to five years.
“The reality is that it doesn’t require much money, it just requires a bit of nerve,” Colin Morrison, chairman of the BSP, said. “Children in care do cost a lot of money, this throws up the opportunity of cost savings. And the social outcomes are just terrific.”
He went on: “We must not get carried away and think every vulnerable child should be in a boarding school. We have said all along just put it on the menu, understand it.”
More than 80 councils have signed up to the BSP scheme so far. Currently, only about 100 children go to private boarding schools paid for by councils but Mr Morrison hopes this will climb to about 1,000 a year within five years.