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Children’s early care experiences and their educational attainment: a population data-linkage study in Wales
Oxford Review of Education, Pages: 1 - 20
Swansea University Authors:
Emily Lowthian , Stuart Bedston, Alexandra Lee, Ashley Akbari
, Lucy Griffiths
, Tom Crick
-
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© 2025 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
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DOI (Published version): 10.1080/03054985.2025.2540036
Abstract
Care-experienced children are at risk of lower educational attainment. Duration of care is related to attainment, as is the type of placement(s) (e.g., foster care). To determine ‘what works’ for care-experienced children, our research examined i) profiles of children on their care experiences, and...
| Published in: | Oxford Review of Education |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0305-4985 1465-3915 |
| Published: |
Informa UK Limited
2025
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70015 |
| first_indexed |
2025-07-21T16:31:12Z |
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| last_indexed |
2025-12-05T09:19:18Z |
| id |
cronfa70015 |
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SURis |
| fullrecord |
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Duration of care is related to attainment, as is the type of placement(s) (e.g., foster care). To determine ‘what works’ for care-experienced children, our research examined i) profiles of children on their care experiences, and ii) how these relate to educational attainment at age seven. Using anonymised, linked records in Wales, United Kingdom, we constructed an e-cohort of children born between September 2000 and August 2003. Data sources included births, children’s social care, primary health care, demographics, and education. We conducted latent class analysis using a three-step approach, summarising social care experiences, with attainment at age seven in English/Welsh and mathematics as a distal outcome. Seven profiles best fitted the data, using data on placement types, duration and age on entry. For the first six years of life, those who experienced foster care which progressed to adoption showed the highest attainment (~1.00 masked), whereas those children who entered foster care from their fourth birthday had the lowest attainment intercept (0.40, 0.13–0.68). 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2025-12-03T10:57:30.3186495 v2 70015 2025-07-21 Children’s early care experiences and their educational attainment: a population data-linkage study in Wales db5bc529b8a9dfca2b4a268d14e03479 0000-0001-9362-0046 Emily Lowthian Emily Lowthian true false c79d07eaba5c9515c0df82b372b76a41 Stuart Bedston Stuart Bedston true false 7c6dc217555b0fea264ff0dd7d0aa374 Alexandra Lee Alexandra Lee true false aa1b025ec0243f708bb5eb0a93d6fb52 0000-0003-0814-0801 Ashley Akbari Ashley Akbari true false e35ea6ea4b429e812ef204b048131d93 0000-0001-9230-624X Lucy Griffiths Lucy Griffiths true false 200c66ef0fc55391f736f6e926fb4b99 0000-0001-5196-9389 Tom Crick Tom Crick true false 2025-07-21 SOSS Care-experienced children are at risk of lower educational attainment. Duration of care is related to attainment, as is the type of placement(s) (e.g., foster care). To determine ‘what works’ for care-experienced children, our research examined i) profiles of children on their care experiences, and ii) how these relate to educational attainment at age seven. Using anonymised, linked records in Wales, United Kingdom, we constructed an e-cohort of children born between September 2000 and August 2003. Data sources included births, children’s social care, primary health care, demographics, and education. We conducted latent class analysis using a three-step approach, summarising social care experiences, with attainment at age seven in English/Welsh and mathematics as a distal outcome. Seven profiles best fitted the data, using data on placement types, duration and age on entry. For the first six years of life, those who experienced foster care which progressed to adoption showed the highest attainment (~1.00 masked), whereas those children who entered foster care from their fourth birthday had the lowest attainment intercept (0.40, 0.13–0.68). From this, we argue that stakeholders should develop additional support for children whose placement is largely foster care, as this group was most at risk for low attainment. Journal Article Oxford Review of Education 0 1 20 Informa UK Limited 0305-4985 1465-3915 Children in care; education; social care; administrative data 12 9 2025 2025-09-12 10.1080/03054985.2025.2540036 COLLEGE NANME Social Sciences School COLLEGE CODE SOSS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Health and Care Research Wales (SCG-21-1861) 2025-12-03T10:57:30.3186495 2025-07-21T17:26:16.6392850 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies Emily Lowthian 0000-0001-9362-0046 1 Stuart Bedston 2 Alexandra Lee 3 Ashley Akbari 0000-0003-0814-0801 4 Lucy Griffiths 0000-0001-9230-624X 5 Tom Crick 0000-0001-5196-9389 6 Donald Forrester 0000-0002-2293-5718 7 70015__35323__870d6274c4854557b8b72c2157c8d996.pdf 70015.VoR.pdf 2025-10-13T13:36:53.9052180 Output 1025313 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| title |
Children’s early care experiences and their educational attainment: a population data-linkage study in Wales |
| spellingShingle |
Children’s early care experiences and their educational attainment: a population data-linkage study in Wales Emily Lowthian Stuart Bedston Alexandra Lee Ashley Akbari Lucy Griffiths Tom Crick |
| title_short |
Children’s early care experiences and their educational attainment: a population data-linkage study in Wales |
| title_full |
Children’s early care experiences and their educational attainment: a population data-linkage study in Wales |
| title_fullStr |
Children’s early care experiences and their educational attainment: a population data-linkage study in Wales |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Children’s early care experiences and their educational attainment: a population data-linkage study in Wales |
| title_sort |
Children’s early care experiences and their educational attainment: a population data-linkage study in Wales |
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db5bc529b8a9dfca2b4a268d14e03479 c79d07eaba5c9515c0df82b372b76a41 7c6dc217555b0fea264ff0dd7d0aa374 aa1b025ec0243f708bb5eb0a93d6fb52 e35ea6ea4b429e812ef204b048131d93 200c66ef0fc55391f736f6e926fb4b99 |
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db5bc529b8a9dfca2b4a268d14e03479_***_Emily Lowthian c79d07eaba5c9515c0df82b372b76a41_***_Stuart Bedston 7c6dc217555b0fea264ff0dd7d0aa374_***_Alexandra Lee aa1b025ec0243f708bb5eb0a93d6fb52_***_Ashley Akbari e35ea6ea4b429e812ef204b048131d93_***_Lucy Griffiths 200c66ef0fc55391f736f6e926fb4b99_***_Tom Crick |
| author |
Emily Lowthian Stuart Bedston Alexandra Lee Ashley Akbari Lucy Griffiths Tom Crick |
| author2 |
Emily Lowthian Stuart Bedston Alexandra Lee Ashley Akbari Lucy Griffiths Tom Crick Donald Forrester |
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Oxford Review of Education |
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1 |
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2025 |
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0305-4985 1465-3915 |
| doi_str_mv |
10.1080/03054985.2025.2540036 |
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Informa UK Limited |
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Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
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| description |
Care-experienced children are at risk of lower educational attainment. Duration of care is related to attainment, as is the type of placement(s) (e.g., foster care). To determine ‘what works’ for care-experienced children, our research examined i) profiles of children on their care experiences, and ii) how these relate to educational attainment at age seven. Using anonymised, linked records in Wales, United Kingdom, we constructed an e-cohort of children born between September 2000 and August 2003. Data sources included births, children’s social care, primary health care, demographics, and education. We conducted latent class analysis using a three-step approach, summarising social care experiences, with attainment at age seven in English/Welsh and mathematics as a distal outcome. Seven profiles best fitted the data, using data on placement types, duration and age on entry. For the first six years of life, those who experienced foster care which progressed to adoption showed the highest attainment (~1.00 masked), whereas those children who entered foster care from their fourth birthday had the lowest attainment intercept (0.40, 0.13–0.68). From this, we argue that stakeholders should develop additional support for children whose placement is largely foster care, as this group was most at risk for low attainment. |
| published_date |
2025-09-12T12:34:54Z |
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11.088929 |

