AFTER-CARE - THE EDUCATION AND OCCUPATION OF ADULTS WHO HAVE BEEN IN CARE

Data from the 1981 and 1991 sweeps of the National Child Development Study are used to explore the educational qualifications and the subsequent occupations of people who had experienced care as children. The results confirm previous investigations which show that people who have been in care have much lower educational qualifications than their peers who have never been in care; they also show that they have higher risks of unemployment and, if they obtain jobs, are more likely to be in lower-level jobs. These results do not, however, apply equally to all people who have ever been in care. People who experienced short periods of care before the age of one perform close to the national average, while one of the most disadvantaged groups are people who came into care before eleven years of age and did not leave care until after eleven. This group typically remained in care for around nine years, and they not only had low educational attainments but also had even lower occupational attainments than would have been expected given their lack of qualifications.