Adoption UK – Written evidence (EDU0060)
1.1 Adoption UK is the leading charity in the UK for all whose lives involve adoption, including adopted people, adopters and the professionals who support them. We connect people, provide support and training and campaign for improvements in adoption policy and practice. We are responding to this call for evidence because our research among adoptees and adopters, as well as education professionals, has repeatedly shown that adoptees and adoptive parents have serious concerns about the ability of the current education system in England to meet the needs of these vulnerable learners.
1.2 The overwhelming majority of children placed for adoption since legal reforms in the 1970s have been removed from their birth parents and placed into care prior to being adopted. Three quarters of them will have experienced abuse and neglect (DfE, 2021). There is growing evidence around the connection between adverse early experiences and mental health issues, poor physical health, and substance misuse (Bellis et al. 2014). Adopted children are more likely than the general population to be impacted by prenatal exposure to alcohol, and Selwyn et al (2014) identified a link between unstable adoptive placements and pre-natal exposure.
1.3 Adopted children frequently enter education with high levels of support needs. According to Adoption UK’s Adoption Barometer 2022 report, 58% of adoptive parents in England are parenting one or more adopted children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and 60% are parenting one or more children with SEN support in school. 79% feel that their child’s adverse early experiences have negatively impacted their attainment in education. DfE data on attainment demonstrates that previously looked after children achieve significantly less well than their non-care-experienced peers at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4. Successive Adoption UK research has found that adopted 16-25-year-olds are twice as likely to be not in education, employment or training (NEET) as national averages.
2 The impact of the 11-16 system on the motivation and confidence of pupils of all abilities.
2.1 Adoption UK surveyed over 2,000 adoptive parents and nearly 2,000 adopted children and young people for the Bridging the Gap (2018) report. Among parents of children aged 11-16, 71% said that school was a source of stress in their family life. Only 40% felt optimistic about their child’s educational future. Among 11-16-year-old respondents, 81% felt that other children enjoyed school more than they did, and 81% said that they sometimes or often felt confused and worried at school.
2.2 Reflecting on their experiences of education, many adult adoptees have negative memories. 61% felt that school was a struggle most of the time, 74% said they needed more support than other learners, and 83% said they did not receive the support they needed. These negative experiences of school impacted experiences of further and higher education. Nearly half did not want to stay on in education post-16 (Adoption UK, 2020b).
2.3 Comments from adoptees of all ages frequently focused on the lack of understanding of the needs of adopted learners, triggering curriculum content, delayed assessment of - and lack of support for SEND (especially social, emotional and mental health needs) - and the pressure created by high stakes examinations.
2.4 The most recent Adoption Barometer report (to be published in May 2023) reveals that many adopted children face barriers to school attendance and school-based anxiety, with 39% of children represented by respondents missing school days due to their mental health, anxiety or emotional wellbeing during 2022 and nearly 1 in 10 classed as persistently absent. Conversely, during partial school closures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, more than half of parents of adopted children aged 11-16 said their child seemed calmer when learning from home. Among those whose children attended school during this time, parents commented positively about the higher staff:pupil ratio, stable learning groups, increased flexibility and choice, additional support during unstructured time, and use of hybrid and virtual approaches to learning. (Adoption UK, 2020b).
2.5 The current 11-16 system employs a rigid and prescribed curriculum, prioritises attendance at school without fully addressing the causes of absence, and favours assessment by high stakes testing. This approach has an adverse impact on children whose lives have not followed a ‘standard’ trajectory because it is so often ill-suited to their needs. Many care-experienced children have had extremely disrupted early lives and are at risk of developmental delay due to early neglect. Most have had their early educational experiences derailed by moves around the care system, leading to gaps in their learning and delayed identification and support of SEND. The positive experiences of many children during the Covid-19 pandemic should prompt this inquiry to consider the potential benefits of offering greater flexibility in the curriculum, hybrid and virtual learning, especially for learners facing barriers to school attendance. In addition, significantly smaller class sizes and a broader range of settings (including innovative approaches to alternative provision, special education and high-quality technical and vocational education) that can more effectively meet the diverse needs of learners should be explored.
3. The effectiveness of GCSEs as a means of assessing the achievements of all pupils at the end of the 11-16 phase.
3.1 Where learners have experienced early neglect, disruption to their early education and have SEND, evidence suggests the deadline of GCSEs as a measure of all educational achievement up to that point in their lives is arbitrary and counter-productive. Some young people will need more time to demonstrate their potential. For example, while only around 13% of care leavers enrol in university by the age of 19, it is estimated that most who do go on to university will do so later in life – around 20-30% of care-experienced people will undertake higher education at some point in their lives (Harrison, 2020).
3.2 Responding to an Adoption UK survey, only 19% of adoptees felt that their exam results at age 16 were a fair reflection of their abilities (Adoption UK, 2020b), yet 30% of respondents aged 25 and older had gone on to higher education later in life.
3.3 High stakes exams are a cause of significant anxiety for many young people. For adoptees, GCSEs are taking place at a time in their lives when other considerations (such as reconnecting with birth relatives, exploring identity and difficult personal histories) are coming to the fore. One adoptee commented, “I was so anxious about my exams, I didn’t turn up.” (Adoption UK, 2020a).
3.3 The current method for awarding grades means that some children will inevitably fail GCSEs. The risk is that the children most likely to ‘fail’ are those who are most likely to have faced significant challenges in accessing education. Many might have gone on to ‘succeed’ if given the appropriate time and support. GCSE grades are a measure of what learning a young person is able to demonstrate in a particular format, on a specific date – they are not a measure of the whole range of abilities, achievements or potential a young person may possess. For this reason, poor grades at GCSE can limit a young person’s access to further and higher education and leave them with a lifelong sense of failure.
3.4 Nobody takes their driving test until they feel completely ready and, if the standard is not met on the day, there is always the opportunity to try again. In this way, the test becomes a driver of personal improvement, rather than simple pass/fail judgement. Adoption UK would welcome this inquiry as an opportunity to explore methods of continuous assessment and low stakes tests that are not designed as a judgement at the end of 11 years of education, but which enable education settings and learners to set a range of goals and evidence their achievement across the years of compulsory education and beyond. While exam grades might be a convenient measure of performance, Adoption UK evidence over several years demonstrates that they do not provide a fair or accurate assessment of a young person’s potential and come with a heavy cost in terms of the mental health of our young people.
References
Adoption UK (2018) Bridging the Gap
Adoption UK (2020a) Home Learning During Covid-19
Adoption UK (2020b) Better Futures
Adoption UK (2022) Adoption Barometer 2022
Bellis, M.A et al (2014) National household survey of adverse childhood experiences and their relationship with resilience to health-harming behaviours in England; BMC Medicine; 12(1)
Department for Education, Children looked after in England including adoption: 2020 to 2021, December 2021.
Harrison, N (2020) Care Leavers in higher education: new statistics but a mixed picture
Selwyn, J. et al. (2014) Beyond the Adoption Order: challenges, interventions and adoption disruption, Department for Education
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