Children under special guardianship need greater support at school, experts urge

Children cared for through special guardianship arrangements should get greater support in schools as they may continue to encounter trauma legacy, early life experiences, and the complex family situations they have, new research says.

This work has been published in the actual journal of educational psychology.

A review of the school’s special guardianship policy and local government practices should also ensure that their needs are properly identified.

This study shows that there is a need to focus more on the school sense of young people living in special guardianship and the support of school guardianship families. Experts say educational psychologists must play an important role by providing psychological training, supervision and guidance to designated teachers and other school staff who support guardian families.

Special guardianship is different from adoption. It is not a lifelong order and does not legally end the relationship between the child and the birth family. Instead, they permanently place children and young people with friends and family, strengthening parental responsibility for their children.

In the year ending in March 2020, 89% of special guardianship orders were made to family and friends. It is believed to be a marked increase in use in the UK. They are the most frequent persistence options for young people with 930 people placed in the UK in the first quarter of 2023-24.

Most young people living in special guardians experience complex emotional and behavioral difficulties, especially when expressing and managing their emotions. This may be related to early experiences of trauma.

A study by Dr. Rata Ramthal of the University of Exeter has developed an in-depth case study of seven children based on interviews with them, their parents and school staff.

Each participant recruited with the help of a local government attended another school in one local government in the UK. Parents included grandparents, ophthalmologists, or foster parents with children in mainstream or special schools, primary schools, or secondary schools. Children were between the ages of 10 and 16, mostly identifying disability or special educational needs.

For all children interviewed, the most important feature of school attribution was peer relationship. The weaker peer relationships with negative experiences were a source of anxiety, especially for secondary school youth, which made them feel isolated and wanted to avoid school or change schools.

Dr. Ramtal said, “Children explain intense ‘all or nothing’ relationships, suggesting that trustworthy peer relationships are required, but often temporary. All young people either experienced difficulties or were worried about how to maintain positive relationships with their peers over time.

“In most cases, their behavior showed difficulties in emotional regulation. For example, self-harm or exhausted classes. None of the students raised their own early experiences as an explanation of whether things were going wrong.”

In most cases, parents did not actively view the friendship of young people. He expressed concern about the quantity and quality of friendship and attributed difficulties in young people to social and emotional development. The difficulty in peer relationships was associated with environmental factors such as transitions between schools, the amount of adult support that interfered with peer relationships, health status, and diagnosis. Parents did not link the youth’s school experience to early life or care experiences.

Some parents spoke proactively about specific staff members, but all expressed overwhelming dissatisfaction with staff’s limited understanding of the needs of young people and the special guardianship in general, and an inappropriate amount of support. The Guardian’s feelings of frustration resulted in vulnerability to the relationship between home and school, and in some cases communication completely disrupted, and young people left or left school.

In this study, designated teachers considered information about the young people’s early life to be important in meeting their needs, but some people were proactive in seeking this detail and instead preferred that the Guardians approach them.

Dr. Ramoutar said, “It was important to share information within schools, at home and between schools in transition. Designated teachers said they were unhappy with their health and social care services due to a lack of information sharing that understands the needs of young people.

“Teachers understood the transmission (special educational needs and disability) process, but most people didn’t know when to consider the emotional and social needs of young people as special educational needs.