Educational outcomes of children in contact with social care in England: a systematic review

Abstract Background In England, the state intervenes in the lives of children through Children’s Social Care (CSC) services with the aim of supporting and maintaining their welfare. It is known from government cross-sectional data that children who experience these CSC interventions (such as state c...

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Main Authors: Matthew A. Jay, Louise Mc Grath-Lone
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2019-06-01
Series:Systematic Reviews
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13643-019-1071-z
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author Matthew A. Jay
Louise Mc Grath-Lone
author_facet Matthew A. Jay
Louise Mc Grath-Lone
author_sort Matthew A. Jay
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Background In England, the state intervenes in the lives of children through Children’s Social Care (CSC) services with the aim of supporting and maintaining their welfare. It is known from government cross-sectional data that children who experience these CSC interventions (such as state care) have consistently poorer educational outcomes than the general population. However, these data are limited in providing crude estimates of association and in ignoring longitudinal histories. This systematic review aimed to appraise the extant research evidence from longitudinal studies and answer the question: how do educational outcomes differ between children in contact with CSC and the general population in the UK? Methods According to a pre-defined protocol, we searched 16 health, social care, education and legal databases for population-level quantitative studies conducted on UK children with exposure to CSC, a general population comparison group and an educational outcome. We also conducted snowball searches and searches of Google Scholar and grey literature. Data on whether each study met inclusion criteria were extracted, and findings of included studies were synthesised narratively. Risk of bias was assessed using the National Institutes of Health Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. Results In total, 5482 sources were screened which resulted in seven studies being included in the narrative synthesis. Only three were published in peer-reviewed journals. All but one used administrative education data and five used administrative data from CSC services. In all studies, exposure to CSC interventions was measured crudely, ignoring heterogeneity in the experiences of children. All agreed that children in contact with CSC services perform worse than their peers on all outcomes (variously: exam results, absences, exclusions, school moves, being missing from school, higher education aspirations and quality of school). Conclusions Despite employing a search across 16 databases supplemented with additional searches of other online sources, we found only seven studies that met our inclusion criteria. This review throws into sharp relief the urgent need to conduct more population-level research into the educational prospects of children in contact with CSC services. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42018089755
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spelling doaj.art-2440c74b1cd94c6481899027f478d4f02022-12-22T00:01:40ZengBMCSystematic Reviews2046-40532019-06-018111110.1186/s13643-019-1071-zEducational outcomes of children in contact with social care in England: a systematic reviewMatthew A. Jay0Louise Mc Grath-Lone1UCL Legal Epidemiology Group, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child HealthRees Centre, University of OxfordAbstract Background In England, the state intervenes in the lives of children through Children’s Social Care (CSC) services with the aim of supporting and maintaining their welfare. It is known from government cross-sectional data that children who experience these CSC interventions (such as state care) have consistently poorer educational outcomes than the general population. However, these data are limited in providing crude estimates of association and in ignoring longitudinal histories. This systematic review aimed to appraise the extant research evidence from longitudinal studies and answer the question: how do educational outcomes differ between children in contact with CSC and the general population in the UK? Methods According to a pre-defined protocol, we searched 16 health, social care, education and legal databases for population-level quantitative studies conducted on UK children with exposure to CSC, a general population comparison group and an educational outcome. We also conducted snowball searches and searches of Google Scholar and grey literature. Data on whether each study met inclusion criteria were extracted, and findings of included studies were synthesised narratively. Risk of bias was assessed using the National Institutes of Health Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. Results In total, 5482 sources were screened which resulted in seven studies being included in the narrative synthesis. Only three were published in peer-reviewed journals. All but one used administrative education data and five used administrative data from CSC services. In all studies, exposure to CSC interventions was measured crudely, ignoring heterogeneity in the experiences of children. All agreed that children in contact with CSC services perform worse than their peers on all outcomes (variously: exam results, absences, exclusions, school moves, being missing from school, higher education aspirations and quality of school). Conclusions Despite employing a search across 16 databases supplemented with additional searches of other online sources, we found only seven studies that met our inclusion criteria. This review throws into sharp relief the urgent need to conduct more population-level research into the educational prospects of children in contact with CSC services. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42018089755http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13643-019-1071-zSocial careChildren in needLooked after childrenChildren ActEducationSchool
spellingShingle Matthew A. Jay
Louise Mc Grath-Lone
Educational outcomes of children in contact with social care in England: a systematic review
Systematic Reviews
Social care
Children in need
Looked after children
Children Act
Education
School
title Educational outcomes of children in contact with social care in England: a systematic review
title_full Educational outcomes of children in contact with social care in England: a systematic review
title_fullStr Educational outcomes of children in contact with social care in England: a systematic review
title_full_unstemmed Educational outcomes of children in contact with social care in England: a systematic review
title_short Educational outcomes of children in contact with social care in England: a systematic review
title_sort educational outcomes of children in contact with social care in england a systematic review
topic Social care
Children in need
Looked after children
Children Act
Education
School
url http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13643-019-1071-z
work_keys_str_mv AT matthewajay educationaloutcomesofchildrenincontactwithsocialcareinenglandasystematicreview
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