A few steps forward.

Hill, Malcolm

Leaving Care Jo Dixon and Mike Stein Jessica Kingsley 2005 192 pages 19.99 [pounds sterling]

Since the 1980s Mike Stein and colleagues have played a big part in putting the issue of leaving care on the policy agenda and keeping it there. They have produced an excellent body of published work on the topic, to which this book (co-authored with Jo Dixon) provides a valuable addition.

Leaving care is a significant marker of the failures of the care system for many young people who experience it, which highlights the importance of improving care arrangements themselves. Equally, leaving care is a key transition point, where lives can unravel unless extended and improved support is provided into early adulthood. Interestingly, although the term 'care' was meant to have become obsolete in the British context on account of its stigmatising connotations following the introduction of terms such as 'looked after' and 'accommodated' by the Children Act 1989, the notion of leaving care has not given way to alternatives such as 'leaving accommodation'.

This volume presents the findings of a research study examining the experiences of young people and the availability and impact of support services during and following the transition of leaving care. The research was carried out in Scotland, so the findings themselves are specific to this context, but just as Scottish practitioners have been able to learn from research from England and elsewhere, so readers outside Scotland will benefit from the general messages that emerge.

The Scottish situation is an awkward one in which to carry out research on leaving care, since here children and young people on formal home supervision are treated as looked after ('in care'). Since this study was based on a legal definition of leaving care, this means that it has included young people who have left care in the sense that their supervision requirement came to an end, but who were living with their birth families during supervision and remained there afterwards so that they have experienced no 'leaving' in the usual sense. The inclusion of this group, while openly acknowledged, tends to confuse the results at various times. On the other hand, it does allow the authors to conclude that their need for support after the age of 16 was often as great as that of their counterparts living away from the family home.

For the local audience, the book provides very helpful detail about relevant Scottish legislation and policies. However, a significant omission is that hardly any mention is made of the role of the Children's Hearings in Scotland, which make decisions not only about when children are admitted to care, accommodation or supervision, but also review progress at least every six months and reach decisions about when young people should leave care. The authors connect their findings well to previous research, though this is primarily English. Hardly any reference is made to the admittedly limited number of Scottish studies that have previously taken place, except with respect to health issues.

Sadly, some of the results from the study echo those of two decades ago in terms of continuing problems with accommodation, poverty and isolation, but more encouragingly there are also signs that many young people were receiving more continuity and support than before. Despite recent improvements in arrangements for throughcare, the authors note that only 40 per cent of their sample had experienced planned preparation for leaving. On the other hand nearly three-quarters are reported to have had good skills for helping them manage independently. Evidence is provided that preparation for leaving care does lead to better outcomes, while co-ordinated action can be effective in ensuring young people are reasonably housed. Two-fifths of the sample had experienced homelessness but this rarely meant sleeping rough. Many were happy and settled when interviewed for a second time six months after entering the study. Not surprisingly, moderating the long-term negative effects of past instability and truancy on education is more difficult. More than half of the young people were out of education or work at the follow-up stage.

Readers of this journal in particular are likely to be gratified that the young people who did best were in stable foster care. Another positive finding was that those young people living in foster care were likely to leave care later than those in other kinds of placement and also included most of those who stayed in care to the age of 18 and beyond.

The book is very clearly organised and presents its findings in an accessible way. Although much of the information is presented in terms of figures and statistics, these are carefully linked into practice issues and in many instances interspersed with apt quotations, mainly from young people themselves.

Malcolm Hill is former Director of the Glasgow Centre for the Child & Society