Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Improving Educational Attainment and Achievement of Looked After Children in Foster Care Service

Overview

In 2018, the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) in Northern Ireland (NI) (now the SPPG), commissioned CES to complete an evaluation of the ‘Improving Educational Attainment and Achievement of Looked After Children in Foster Care’ Service, (otherwise known as the Fostering Attainment and Achievement (FAA) Service), delivered by the Fostering Network (TFN).
Key aims of the FAA Service were to build the capacity of foster carers and equip them to meet the educational challenges faced by children and young people in foster care and to promote education and learning opportunities for children and young people, including access to specialist educational services if required.

The Challenge

The main objective of the evaluation was to evaluate the effectiveness of the FAA service including:

Identifying the most effective aspects of the service
Assessing the effectiveness of Personal Education Plans in enabling access to the service
Identifying the range and type of children, young people and foster carers who engaged most successfully with the service
Assessing the impact and outcomes for children and young people and foster carers
Exploring stakeholders’ understanding and perceptions of the FAA service

What We Did

The evaluation took a ‘programme theory’ approach, which assesses the contribution that policies, programmes or services make to the achievement of outcomes, while also exploring how and why outcomes have or have not been achieved. The team involved from CES were Dr Alison Montgomery, Dr Claire Hickey, Caitlin Allen, Dearbhaile Slane, Dr Joan Broder and Dr Suzanne McCartney.

The team conducted a series of qualitative interviews and focus groups with FAA service users, service providers and key health and education stakeholders, to gather their perceptions and/or experiences of the formal education supports, extra-curricular activities, summer schemes and foster carer supports provided through the service. A group of young people with care experienced backgrounds supported the evaluation through their role as peer researchers.

You can read our Guide to Working with Peer Researchers here.

The Impact

The evaluation found that engagement with FAA supports and activities contributed positively to children and young people’s educational, social and emotional development.

The bespoke nature of formal education supports and positive tutor attributes were found to be important in supporting children and young people's learning and attainment.

Children and young people’s experiences of extra-curricular supports and summer schemes helped to improve their self-esteem and confidence and had a positive impact on their engagement with formal education.

Foster carers valued the supports made available to them, particularly opportunities to access peer support. It was recommended that a flexible and accessible menu of supports, more closely aligned to the support provided to children be developed and publicised, in order to maximise foster carers’ participation.

Recommendations were also made as to how the service could increase its effectiveness and visibility, taking into account the wider systemic enablers and barriers.

You can find out more about the Fostering Attainment and Achievement Service here.