Looked after Children

Looked after children - or LACs as they are often referred to, are those children who are in foster care or who are living in children's homes. If ever there was an unfortunate acronym, it must be this one. LAC is a term I have heard teachers and lecturers use frequently and far too often with the hearing of the children themselves, the LACs. The children or young people might not know what the acronym stands for, and in most cases I am sure they don't. Education, just as the other professions, is full of acronyms. They work as a kind of shorthand between professionals and usually it doesn't matter whether the students hear them or not. But LACs is different. If they hear it, it might well be deeply affecting. There was no ill-intent in the formation of this acronym, but LACs clearly suggests something is missing, something is not complete and for looked after children, that is undoubtedly the case.

These children are in foster care or in children's home because of some kind of family break up. They are often traumatised, always confused and mostly sad and yearning for their former lives, despite the neglect, the violence, the neglect and the misery.

Children, more than any other demographic, feel it acutely when they are different from others. Different is what they do not want to be. How often do you hear children saying they want something and that everyone else has got one? They want to be the same - the same as other children. They know they are not and, cruel as children can be, some of them are more than happy to point it out.

I have been involved in education and in fostering for many years and speak from experience about the horrors and the lifelong damage that some parents unleash onto their children.

If this were not enough, Michael Wilshaw, the Chief Inspector of Schools, on January 13th, pointed out the widening gap between pupils not in care and those who are. In addition, Wilshaw pointed out the lack of accountability between schools, Local Authorities and the Government regarding the progress of LACs.

This is a disgraceful state of affairs. All the more disgraceful as schools receive a Pupil Premium, direct funding, to be used solely on these pupils. It would be truly shocking if schools were less than determined to spend this money on anything or anyone other than children in care.

It is essential that these children, whose circumstances and families, for whatever reason, have let them down, are not let down again by the very people, the professionals, who should be doing their level best to even the odds and to make life as equal as possible for those who so desperately need it.