Brussels seminar Nov SJ1 Unemployment, education and social exclusion: the case of young people from public care Professor Sonia Jackson Thomas Coram Research Unit Institute of Education University of London UK University of London UK

2 EU Strategy for Youth: Investing and Empowering  To create more opportunities for youth in education and employment  To improve access and full participation of all young people in society European Commission, April 2009

3 YiPPEE YiPPEE Aim: To find out how more young people who have been in state care as children can be encouraged to stay in education beyond the age of compulsory schooling and to access higher levels of education

4 Partners in the YiPPEE project  England  Sweden  Denmark  Hungary  Spain (Catalonia)

5 What is the problem? Steep rise in youth unemployment in all countries  Denmark: increase 61% compared with same quarter 2008  Catalonia: 44.5% increase in unemployment (Spain 35.1%)  Hungary 23% unemployed (national rate 9.5%)  Sweden 27.3% unemployed (5 x other age groups)  England: 20% 15-24, 943,000 under 24 yr olds unemployed (highest rate of increase in Europe). Govt announced £200m emergency package. Govt announced £200m emergency package.

6 Recession and recovery  Unemployment hits yp first and they are last to get back to work when things improve  Among yp those with higher levels of education are less likely to become unemployed and for shorter periods of time.  70% new jobs will require graduate level skills  Care leavers with only basic education and no family back-up are at greatest risk of long-term unemployment and social exclusion

Risk and social exclusion  Unqualified year old becoming unemployable So what happens to them?  Homelessness  Welfare dependency  Ill health, physical and mental  Early parenthood  Alcohol and drug misuse  Offending Brussels seminar Nov SJ7

8 Educational expectations and aspirations  Education is the key resource for social inclusion and the hardest to access  Children in care from groups historically excluded  Social workers and carers have low expectations  Young people have limited horizons Among those living in children’s homes only 14% want to go to university compared with 50% living with their families (HU) Among those living in children’s homes only 14% want to go to university compared with 50% living with their families (HU)

9 What can we do about it?  Highlight the issue  Find out the facts  Put remedial measures in place

10 Progress so far  State of the art literature review: what is known from previous research  Establishing a baseline of facts and statistics in each country  Promoting continuing engagement of care leavers in education through professional and academic channels  Record and analyse the experience and views of young people themselves and ensure they inform our conclusions and recommendations