It has long been a concern that most children in care lag behind their fellow peers academically. However, according to research by Oxford University, it finds that children who are fostered make better progress in school than children in need.
In general, the longer they are in care the better they do. The Research estimate that by the age of 16, children in foster care or kinship care achieved GCSEs at least six grades higher, on average, than children in other forms of care.
When a child goes into foster care or gets a suitable placement with a family, it allows the child to be at their natural habitat or close to it. They get a dedicated support network (the parents/family) and they resume back to as normal of a life as can be under the circumstances.
There are a lot of vulnerable children, many of them without stable homes and it just shows how education and a stable home environment can transform the lives and futures of our most vulnerable children.
Placing a foster child with a loving family has a great amount of positive impact on the child and it really helps them alleviate the trauma they had endured in the past. Once a child faces trauma and neglect, essentially they can only go in two directions, one is on a downward spiral or the other is to get up with the help of the foster family.
Being a foster carer is amazing as it allows you to really transform the lives of some of the most vulnerable youth in our society.
You can catch more of the research here.
