Report | Pathways into and through higher education for young people with experience of children’s social care

Tackling inequalities for those with experience
of children’s social care

This report provides new data on patterns of entry to higher education for young people in England with experience of children’s social care. In our study, the term ‘young person with experience of social care’ refers to those who:

• meet the statutory definition of a care leaver
• were previously in care at any point after the age of five but did not meet the statutory definition of a care leaver
• were on a child protection plan at any point after the age of 11
• were categorised as a ‘child in need’ at any point after the age of 11.

This report provides basic statistical findings on the general research question: ‘How do these different groups of young people with experience of children’s social care tend to differ in their progression to and through higher education compared with each other and other young people?’

The report is supported by six appendices providing more detail on methods, coding of variables and the full set of statistical tables.

We make no presumption that higher education entry is a necessary goal for all young people or that other destinations including work, care, further education and other activities may not offer greater value and significance.

We hope this statistical information is helpful to those interested in improving higher education and further education access and experience, by providing a benchmark in terms of current rates and in evidencing insufficient realisation of the potential, capability and rights of many young people.

• Read the full report here: Pathways into and through higher education for young people with experience of children’s social care (PDF)

Appendices

• Appendix A: Technical report (PDF)
• Appendix B: Codebook of variable specifications (PDF)
• Appendix C: Descriptive statistics for the outcome, explanatory an pathway status variables (PDF)
• Appendix D: Results of the regression analysis (PDF)
• Appendix E: Descriptive statistics for the educational pathway variables (PDF)
• Appendix F: Other relationships between key variables (PDF)