This month, about half a million 18-year-olds around the UK will be packing their bags ready to start university. The latest figures show that 47% of young people from state-funded schools will progress into higher education by age 19; but the same figure for children who grew up in care is just 14%. This is the “care ceiling” that holds back young people who have had the worst start in life. A new report published by the children and families unit at Civitas suggests it will take more than 100 years to close that gap and break this care ceiling at the current rate of progress. It doesn’t have to be this way – and it would take only a few relatively simple reforms to make a huge difference.
The report, which I have backed with a cross-party group of peers, shows that getting into university and graduating helps to prevent many of the terrible outcomes that are typically associated with leaving care. At the moment, it is sadly still the case that an 18-year-old care leaver is more likely to end up in a prison cell than a university lecture theatre. They make up a quarter of the homeless population and are far less likely to be in education, employment or training than other people of their age.
In 2022 a comprehensive review of England’s social care system for children found the cost to the taxpayer of these outcomes was more than £1m a child. The cost of a university place and additional support to get them there seems small by comparison.
Care leavers are not less clever than other people; they are just less lucky. Official data shows that even children entitled to free school meals and those in the poorest fifth of households are more than twice as likely to go to university as a young person who grew up in care. So any government looking for an optimistic social reform should look carefully at how universities can do better at attracting young people who have grown up in care, and potentially change their lives. The “care ceiling” is there to be broken – and when you do, it turns out to make a big difference.
The thinktank Civitas has analysed official earnings data and discovered that going to university shrinks the pay gap between care experienced people and others. Eighteen months after graduation, it found, graduates who grew up in care earn only 2.5% a year less than graduates who didn’t – that’s compared to a difference of a third for those who haven’t been to university. In addition, when you consider that a third of care leavers end up having children taken into care themselves, and the intergenerational cycle of care this creates, this is potentially a big social reform if politicians are willing to grasp it.
You only have to look at Scotland to see how it can be done. The Scottish government more than tripled the number of care leavers at Scottish universities during a single parliament, by getting universities together to agree that any care leaver who gets the minimum grades required is guaranteed a place. Care leavers are also offered a generous bursary to cover the costs of studying, taking the risk out of going to university. The government could easily introduce a similar scholarship programme at every university in the UK.
It isn’t just about universities; what happens at school is just as important. Currently, just 9% of children in care stay on at school beyond their GCSEs, compared with a national average of 36%. This probably means they are not taking A-levels – the traditional, but not the only, way into university – but we simply don’t know. The government holds no data on what happens educationally to young people growing up in care beyond their GCSEs. This is a remarkable oversight that needs to be addressed.
Increasing the number of care leavers in higher education is something we should all get behind: it would save the taxpayer money, increase the number of bright young people being trained for the jobs we’ll need to build a stronger future, and increase opportunities for many who deserve them. This is why I have joined with a cross-party group of peers to urge the government to act, and for opposition parties to make this part of their manifestos. With a strong commitment, this is a social reform that could be delivered during the next parliament. If Holyrood can do it, Westminster can, and it doesn’t need to take 100 years to close the gap.
If we were to simply double the number of care leavers getting into university by the end of the next parliament, each university in the UK would need to take on only 32 extra students with experience of care. For some, this wouldn’t take much, but it would immediately help to improve aspirations among care leavers and send out a clear message that, if they wish, university is for them. Then they can work towards making a difference through the gift of education, become role models and change the world.
Baroness Floella Benjamin is a Liberal Democrat peer, actor, writer and campaigner and a patron of First Star Scholars UK, a charity that helps young people from care into university