Invisible children: The out-of-home care and education of babies and toddlers

Abstract

Many thousands of very young children pass through the UK care system every year. Understandably, social workers are reluctant to separate children from their parents, and legal protections designed to prevent the separation from becoming permanent lead to constant delay in making longer-term plans. The aim is that the children should either be returned to their birth families or placed for adoption, but this is not achieved in up to 50% of cases. Consequently, many infants and toddlers remain in foster care, intended to be temporary, for long periods. Yet we know little about their lives in care or who looks after them.

Research on foster care and on early childhood education and care (ECEC) has developed on separate and unrelated lines, resulting in an extreme shortage of empirical evidence about the care and education of fostered children under school age. Lack of attention to this critical period of life fails to take account of advances in research both on early brain development and on the lasting effects of adverse childhood experiences. Meanwhile, young children continue to be moved between short-term foster placements for administrative reasons, ignoring the undisputed importance of stable early attachments. The potential of foster care as a learning and therapeutic resource in the early years has also been largely overlooked. Better mental health and educational attainment for children in out-of-home care require a much stronger policy focus on their earliest experiences and developmental progress. This article argues that there is an urgent need for research-based information to guide policy and practice.