New research published by the Civitas think tank shows that at the current rate of progress it will take more than 100 years to close the gap in university entry rates between care experienced people and those who didn’t experience care as a child.
About 14 per cent of care experienced people under 19 go to university, compared to about 47 per cent of their peers overall. Civitas’ report challenges policymakers to do more to tackle the “care ceiling”, whereby a care experienced person is much less likely to progress to university.
Breaking the care ceiling should be a policy objective for any government but it will require a more credible target than simply “closing the gap”. A better and more measurable target is needed. If we were to aim to double the number of care experienced people at our universities, as recommended by Josh MacAlister in his Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, each university would, on average, need to take on approximately 12 extra students with experience of care each year. This will mean some taking on many more care experienced people than they currently have studying at undergraduate level.
