Mental Wellbeing of Children Looked After (CLA) in schools

Children who are Looked After (CLA) are not a homogeneous group; however, they often share similar stories of disrupted home lives and multiple school changes. Indeed, 71% of CLA, in a pilot study, experienced at least one change across any measure (i.e. any change in home-placement, school placement, or social worker) within the previous 12 months (Children’s Commissioner, 2017).

Many more CLA have Special Educational Needs (SEN) (58%) than their peers (17%) and that, added to the instability of their home and school placements, means many CLA significantly underperform academically when compared to their peers. Schools that do well at reducing the gap between CLA and their peers seem to do so by offering discrete social and emotional support, having high aspirations for their CLA, encouraging them to take control of their own learning, participating in wider school and community activities, and liaising regularly with their carers. CLA themselves value having a trusted adult in school with whom they can share their thoughts and experiences, often require additional support with transitions (start/ends of lessons, school days, school terms, school years), and have more limited access to internet-enabled technology, so appreciate it when their teachers recognise this and take this into account when setting homework tasks.