Improving the chances for looked-after children

IT is time to stop labelling children in care and start listening to them. That is the message of the latest phase of the Give Me a Chance campaign, from the charity Who Cares? Scotland, which has won the backing of the Scottish Government and the Association of Directors of Social Work.

The statistics about looked-after children are painfully familiar: they are less likely to leave school with qualifications, more likely to be homeless, more likely to go to prison, more likely to suffer mental health problems and less likely to find work.

Many of the volunteers and professionals trying to help these children and young people believe their problems are compounded by the discrimination they suffer from the public. Though the majority are taken into care for their own welfare and protection, too often they are regarded as problem children, rather than children with problems. Frequently the result is that these youngsters feel set apart and written off. Negative stereotyping generates self-fulfilling prophecies.

Is this initiative well-enough resourced to make a real difference? Such campaigns can change attitudes. The See Me campaign successfully challenged public responses to those with learning difficulties and mental health problems but much depends on whether such publicity is sufficiently sustained and hard-hitting.

There is a vicious circle here because if the public cared more about children in care, politicians would do more for them. Yet sadly, most people probably rarely think about them, except when tragic news stories provide shocking glimpses into their troubled lives. In 2009 Georgia Rowe and Neve Lafferty ran away from the Good Shepherd Care Centre and jumped to their deaths from the Erskine Bridge. And recently looked-after teenagers have featured strongly among the victims of sexual grooming gangs. Perhaps part of the issue here is the absence from the public discourse of the voices of looked-after young people themselves.

Another issue is whether the stigmatisation of children in care can be addressed without tackling the serious problems that beset the care system. Many of those working hard to improve outcomes for these children maintain that it is unfair to blame care homes for stunting their potential when the real issue is how damaged these children are by the time they get there. A report last year from the Scottish Children’s Reporters’ Administration concluded that thousands of children are being permanently scarred emotionally by being left in risky home circumstances. Many are shuttled between parental homes, foster families and care homes for years. Unsurprisingly, many fall behind at school. There is a consensus developing around faster, stronger, earlier intervention epitomised by a pilot scheme in Glasgow into what is known as the New Orleans Intervention Model but against a backdrop of local authority cuts and services being spread more thinly, how can Scotland stop children in care becoming second-class citizens?