Children in care off school for months as school rejections stack up

Some children living in care are out of school for months or even years as they struggle to find somewhere that will give them a place, a BBC investigation has found.

A 16-year-old boy rejected by 14 schools is among many being "failed" by the system, according to the boss of a group of children's homes in Lincolnshire. Half the children in their care as of January were out of mainstream education.

Councils are legally obliged to ensure looked-after children get top priority when applying for schools - but figures from the Children's Homes Association (CHA) suggest providers across England and Wales are facing difficulties securing places for children in their care.

A head teachers' union says "chronic underfunding" means schools do not have the resource to take on some children, while councils say they need more powers to force more schools to let them in.

Tyler, not his real name, is like many 16-year-olds, enjoying gaming and spending much of his time on his computer.

He should be taking his GCSEs in May, but is not listed to sit any exams after receiving only a few hours of education a week for the past three years he has been in care.

He has been out of school completely for 18 months. His home says many of the 14 schools who rejected Tyler's applications said they could not meet the requirements in his education, health and care plan (EHCP) - a legal document setting out the support he needs.

When asked by his key worker - who wrote down his words - how he felt about so many rejections, Tyler said: "No matter how nice I am, they only see what they want to see. Why should I care about my education when no-one else does?"

Alex, who was Tyler's key worker until his recent move to another home, says he is a "really smart young boy", but she fears the effect on him of not being at school.

She says: "We are expecting this young man to leave care, manage a tenancy. I've got no concerns about him being able to cook and feed himself. But how can he do any of that without a job? And how can he get a job with no qualifications?"

We are not naming the homes to protect those living there. Many come from backgrounds of neglect and abuse.

Tyler's EHCP says he has behavioural difficulties and struggles to regulate his emotions, after experiencing trauma earlier in life.

He tends to run away from situations he finds overwhelming and sometimes communicates through shouting and arguing.

The plan states a school would need to give him a safe place to go when feeling overwhelmed and access to highly-skilled staff trained in trauma.

Julie, the managing director of the children's homes, says the system is "failing" many children in care, adding: "They have set off in life with a disadvantage and the longer they're out of education, the harder it is for them to go back in."

The CHA says 40 of the 49 providers it surveyed in January, representing 273 homes across England and Wales, reported difficulties securing school placements for children in their care.

Some children's home providers who took part in the survey said they had waited six months or more to get a child into school, while others had resorted to opening their own schools to educate the child.

Dr Mark Kerr, CHA chief executive, wants to see more local authorities taking their corporate parenting duties "seriously" and "fighting for these children".

Another teenager at the children's homes group, who we are calling Katie, wants to become a social worker.

"People have got aspirations," the 15-year-old says. "Just because they're in care doesn't mean that they're going to end up in a bad place."

She has not been to school for more than four months since being told not to return, which her home said the school had given no reason for. That placement had taken seven months to secure.

Katie's key worker says she takes "pride in her work" but believes she was "set up to fail" at the school, which had only agreed to take her after the local authority threatened to complain to the government.

"It almost seemed like they looked for anything that was wrong with her uniform, any slight talking out in the classroom environment, or to a teacher," he says.

"There didn't seem to be any ability to be able to look past the behaviour and see the young person."

Katie says she felt she was treated differently from other pupils, adding: "They don't want me there – I know that."

Government guidelines say schools cannot refuse to give a place to a looked-after child "on the basis of challenging behaviour" and councils will not tolerate "drift and delay".

Schools can only refuse to accept a looked-after child in exceptional circumstances, where it could affect the education or safety of others.

Amanda Hopgood, from the Local Government Association, says councils are "doing everything they can" to make sure every child gets a school place.

But she said councils only have powers to force some schools to take children on, and those powers do not extend to academies - which make up 82% of all secondary schools in the UK.

She says this means some children are "not receiving the education they need".

The Department for Education says a new law will extend councils' powers to include academies, to "speed up securing school places for children in care".

Rob Williams, from the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), says schools need support from health, social care and other services, adding: "Unfortunately, that extra provision is not always available and these types of services have been chronically underfunded for many years."

Rising costs for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have put pressure on the government, which announced a major overhaul of the system on Monday including £1.6bn over three years going directly to schools, early years settings and colleges.

The NAHT said it was assessing whether "commitments are sufficient to ensure success".

Julie says the government's overhaul will not solve the problem children's homes are facing, citing unnecessary "red tape" causing further delays to school applications, and a multi-agency, months-long process that gave no guarantees of finding a place for the child.

She adds: "The reality is when you knock on the door, [schools] can say 'no'… if we appeal [and win], we've got the child starting with a black mark against them because the school didn't want them."

Research from 2023 found that out of the more than 50,000 children in care in England, 1,363 were missing from school, with mainstream schools often showing "reluctance" to take on children with complex needs.

Responding to our investigation, children's commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza says councils and schools must work together "far earlier", adding: "Too many children in care are being left in limbo for months or even years while they wait for a school placement, with devastating consequences."