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Considerable evidence clearly demonstrates the poor educational outcomes faced by children in care. Whilst a number of interventions exist in order to address this problem, the evidence base for their effectiveness remains very limited. This thesis provides a critical review of the existing literature on the education of children in care and efforts which address their poor outcomes. The thesis moves on to report a case study evaluation of one popular intervention that has emerged over the last decade aimed at improving the literacy, numeracy and wellbeing outcomes of children in care - The Letterbox Club. This intervention involves sending parcels to children. Parcels are sent once a month, for six months, to the child’s current address, and contain a fiction book, a non-fiction book, a maths game and stationary items. The thesis uses a mixed method design. The trial involved 116 children, who were tested both before and after receiving the parcels, and were tested for a variety of outcomes. The trial found no evidence that the Letterbox Club had any effect on the children who participated compared to a matched control group. The qualitative process evaluation included data from children, carers and the programme creator and explored reading practices and the use of the parcels in the home. Overall, this study is one of the first of its type to use robust methods to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention for children in care. Drawing upon ecological theories, the thesis helps develop current understanding of book gifting programmes and their impact. The thesis suggests that reading development is an individualised process, and so a one size fits all approach may not be beneficial for those who have failed to engage with learning and reading. Additionally, the thesis highlights that carer involvement is extremely important for children in care.

Researchers and governments in the UK and elsewhere have raised concern about the low average levels of educational attainment reached by children in public care. This study explores the causes and nature of looked-after children’s difficulties in mathematics, and suggests potential improvements for policy and practice in the future. I undertook case studies, across a period of a year, of five looked-after children aged 7 to 11 with varied ‘care backgrounds’ who were identified as having difficulties in mathematics, and used clinical interviews to explore their understanding and skills in counting, place value, addition and subtraction. Interviews with the children, their class teachers, teaching assistants and other adults in school provided data about each child’s experience of mathematics in school, and I interviewed each child’s main foster carer to explore the mathematics the child did at home, and to examine the links between home and school. My study identified several barriers to each child’s progress, including a lack of recognition of the effects of previous trauma, loss and neglect, on the child’s ability to engage in educational activity. School systems of organising mathematics teaching sometimes separated the child from classmates and teachers; poor assessment, poor teaching, and the child’s own avoidance techniques meant they were not able to engage successfully in mathematics lessons. There was little evidence of positive links between home and school to help the child make progress, but some unacknowledged good practice within the home environment that could be shared. Similarly, some teachers were making a positive difference to the child in their care, but would have benefited from additional support and professional development. Productive approaches found during the study included using the clinical interview for detailed assessment; using oral and practical work in context to increase understanding of arithmetic; and a focus on metacognition using visually stimulated recall, to show the child that they could be successful.

Looked after children (LAC) are more likely than peers to have experienced insecure or disorganised attachment relationships with their parents. They are at risk of developing mental health difficulties, and are seven times more likely than peers to meet criteria for conduct disorder (CD). Outcomes are poor for LAC in the UK. The literature review included an exploration of the extent to which externalising behaviour (EB) was associated with attachment security in childhood. EB was defined as behaviour that is anti-social, aggressive, oppositional or destructive. Three electronic databases were searched. Seven studies, from community settings, reached criteria and all were published since a recent meta-analysis. A clear link was found between children's attachment styles and rates of EBs. Mechanisms contributing to this link included children's ability to regulate emotions and to understand mental states, contextual adversity, and parental psychopathology. The empirical paper consisted of a report on a qualitative study conducted with foster carers about their perceptions of their looked after child's behaviours, and of their relationship with the child. Four main themes were extracted from interview transcripts: (i.) Children's current behavioural presentation, (ii.) Carers' skills and achievements, (iii.) Belonging, and (iv.) Feeling let down by services. Foster carers had a range of useful skills to manage children's' difficult behaviours, but were reporting to be in need of more effective support and training opportunities. It is recommended that the UK care system places more emphasis on forming authentic relationships with young people and their carers. Carers would appreciate services that are less risk averse, and with a common sense approach.

Background: The Local Authority (LA) in which the researcher works has a high proportion of Adopted Children (5.5% of all Cared For Children), which is well above the national average. As part of placement duties the researcher began developing working relationships with the Adoption and Special Guardianship (ASG) Team, which supported children, schools and parents. ASG identified a lack of understanding among school staff and parents with regard to issues faced by adoptive children and support from the Educational Psychology service was requested. The focus of the research was to create a new training programme to be delivered in schools to members of staff and adoptive parents in partnership with the ASG team. Participants: Twenty participants took part in both focus group and training programme. These were parents of adopted children, representatives from the children’s schools, an EP and ASG team members. Methods: A mixed method design was conducted gathering qualitative and quantitative data for pre and post evaluation of the training programme. Information was gathered using a mixture of semi and unstructured structured focus groups and pre- and post evaluations through questionnaires which gathered ordinal scale data and personal statements. Content analysis and statistical analysis were used to analyse outcomes. Analysis/Findings: A range of themes was found in pre-programme creation generated from initial focus group data, focusing on experience sharing parental and school support, awareness of attachment issues and their impact on behaviour and learning and support to create strategies for children in schools and at home. Conclusion/Implications: The creation of the training programme was able to address the needs of parents and school staff and awareness of attachment issues was raised. The unique contribution of the EP was identified and discussed and possible implications for future research into this area were identified.

Looked after children (LAC) are some of the most vulnerable and socially excluded in society (McParlin, 1996). This qualitative study aims to explore LAC perceptions of the development of self and/or identity, and to address critique about previous research being ‘atheoretical’. Literature on ‘identity’ and ‘stigma from a variety of different perspectives are drawn on to provide a lens through which LAC experiences can be understood. A constructivist-interpretive approach was used, with semi-structured, face to face interviews as the method of data collection. Seven interviews (aged 13-17) were conducted, which were recorded and transcribed, with an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of data performed (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). The five superordinate themes that resulted from the IPA of the data were: Theme 1: SHATTERED SELF; Theme 2: FEELING DIFFERENT; Theme 3: DANCE WITH STIGMA; Theme 4: PIVOTAL MOMENTS AND MEANING MAKING; and Theme 5: RE-ESTABLISHING IDENTITY AND TURNING TOWARDS THE FUTURE. These themes are discussed in relation to extant literature and theoretical approaches to identity development and stigma. Results indicated that being taken into care profoundly disrupted a pre-existing identity and removed continuity and coherence in participants’ lives. For many of the young people, once they had entered care, they experienced daily struggles with themselves and others. Analysis revealed a sense of brokenness as well as transformation with many reporting personal growth as a result of their journey. The findings also highlight the importance of ‘meaning making’ in determining a more advanced identity development. Practical applications to the role of the EP and limitations are discussed with some suggestions for further research.

Poor long term outcomes have been documented for individuals growing up in the care system. These outcomes have been associated with early maltreatment within birth family relationships, which impinge on the individual’s development. However, supportive relationships have repeatedly been found to act as a protective factor for individuals who are in care. The aim of this study was to explore care leavers’ experiences of positive relationships and the impact that they had on the achievement of developmental needs. Rather than considering one type of relationship, the current study focused on how an individual’s developmental needs were met, possibly through multiple relationships. Eleven young people were recruited from a care-leaver service and took part in a semi-structured interview about their experience of positive relationships in the fulfilment of developmental needs. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis produced three superordinate themes from the participants’ experiences: Attachment – being able to engage with a variety of attachment figures, yet still experiencing emotional dysregulation and relationship problems from early insecure attachments; Impact of Care System – which may exacerbate attachment problems or provide a safe haven for development; and Developmental Needs – how developmental needs were met through relationships or the barriers to them. These results were discussed in relation to how the emotional and relational effects of early insecure attachment was likely to be further impacted upon through experience of the care system. The specific influence of trust and rejection appeared throughout the results and this was discussed in relation to service development and interventions focusing upon relationship needs.

Background: Research has demonstrated that there is more likely to be a disruption to the placement where foster carers have birth children. Given the limited presence of the birth children of foster carers in research and the importance of the retention of carers, it seems relevant to policy and practice to investigate the parent-child relationship. Therefore, this study aimed to explore how the birth children of foster carers experienced their relationship with their parents. Method: Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse semi-structured interviews with eight young people who were the birth children of foster carers. Results: Three superordinate themes emerged. These were: ‘relational processes that give value to my role in the family’, ‘threats to our relationship’ and ‘making sense as a way of managing the threats’. Each of these superordinate themes contained subthemes. Conclusions: The findings suggest that the processes of ‘making sense’ and ‘feeling valued’ serve to buffer the impact of potential threats to the parent-child relationship. Clinical implications include the application of a model that has been developed to elucidate the relationship between the themes. This has clinical implications for further understanding and informing the way services support both foster carers and their children.

Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) has been used with a range of different client groups to support positive interactions (Kennedy, Landor and Todd, 2011). There has been little research into how this intervention might work with foster-carers of primary school-aged children who are in Local Authority care. Using Grounded Theory Methodology (Corbin and Strauss, 2008), interview data from 7 foster-carers of primary-school aged children who had taken part in a video-feedback intervention, VIG, was analysed. Data was collected prior to and subsequent to the intervention. The theory that developed from this analysis, The Patchwork Explanatory Model, elucidated the complexity of the lives of the foster-carers through identification of relational factors that affected effective interactions between them and the children in their care. These include; the child’s attributes, foster-carer’s beliefs, child behaviour, the child and carer’s histories, foster-carer’s capacity to reflect, other people and the foster-carer’s affective state. Processes that are inherent to the delivery of VIG that are found to be important are that it is a strength-based intervention where time is given for foster-carers to micro-analyse moments of attuned interaction. The underlying mechanisms are that of conscious awareness of the foster-carer’s skills and mentalisation. Foster-carers felt validated by the intervention; their perceptions of the behaviour of the children in their care was normalised either because it had changed or was seen differently; and they reported changes in their own behaviour. An unexpected finding was that foster-carer’s perceptions of trauma appeared reduced. The theoretical explanatory model created also explains different responses to the same intervention with a further underlying mechanism of self-protection. Self-protection is actively carried out by foster-carers to reduce the current and future risk of trauma or feeling overwhelmed. It can affect the beliefs held by the foster-carer and interactions of the foster-carer and these can influence the foster-carer’s ability to mentalise so that they can be less effective in their reflections of their own and the child’s actions with a consequent impact on the perceived quality of the relationship.

Much evidence links early childhood factors to later antisocial and criminal behaviour. However, many ‘at-risk’ children do not develop such behaviours. Some families are subject to intensive intervention from services including social, health, criminal justice and special education services, yet little is known about what aspects of support are useful for the most vulnerable families in the longer term. This mixed methods study investigates parents’ experiences of the full range of services with which they and their children are involved during middle childhood. The major component is a longitudinal five-year qualitative interview study of eleven families, including practitioners parents nominated as helpful. Children were at-risk because of their difficult behaviour and additional family risk factors. Inductive thematic analysis suggested factors which appeared important in changing child behaviour and family functioning. A subset of these factors were further investigated using quantitative longitudinal analysis of a large cohort data set, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), to examine associations with antisocial and criminal behaviour at ages 16–21. The original contribution to knowledge is identification and explanation of factors influencing how families benefit, or fail to benefit, from intervention. These include the conflicting roles of services tasked with support, reform and surveillance of families. Some parents are skilfully supported to make lasting changes in their parenting behaviour, but non-familial influences such as peers, neighbourhood and school experiences mean improvements in parent-child relationships do not necessarily translate to improvements in the child’s behaviour and wellbeing outside the family. In addition, the study contributes analyses linking middle childhood factors to lower chance of future antisocial and criminal behaviour. These factors include changes in maternal hostility and depression, financial circumstances and children’s relationships with teachers. Findings suggest families could be helped by easier-to-access, on-call, non-judgemental support and, in schools, attention to consistent, supportive relationships.