Physical education, school sport and looked-after-children: health, wellbeing and educational engagement

ABSTRACT

In recent years, there has been unprecedented awareness within policy and research of the disadvantageous trajectories that looked-after children and young people (LACYP) often face; particularly in relation to their education, health and wellbeing. Despite the perceived capacity of sport, physical activity and physical education to contribute to young people’s positive development, relatively few studies have considered the place of such activities in the lives of LACYP or the impact that being looked-after can have on individuals’ engagements with them. Presenting findings from a small-scale, qualitative study of LACYP in England, this paper explores the ways in which physical education and school sport (PESS) might be contextualised against broader life circumstances and experiences of care. Placing the personalised accounts of a group of LACYP alongside those of physical education (PE) teachers and local authority professionals, the paper examines varied perspectives and experiences of PESS and its relevance to LACYP. In particular, it highlights the extent to which the vulnerabilities of LACYP status may impact young peoples’ perceptions of health, wellbeing and educational engagement in this field. The paper concludes by suggesting that whilst PESS may be seen to present a number of social, emotional and health benefits for LACYP, when located against a backdrop of broader life-course vulnerability, such benefits may be de-prioritised by those concerned.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical education
• school sport
• health and wellbeing
• looked-after-children and young people (LACYP)
• qualitative research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In the UK, ‘looked-after children’ is the legal term for children and young people looked after by a local authority in accordance with the Children Act 1989. Under this Act, a local authority may remove a child or young person from their natural family setting by reason of a Care Order, Emergency Protection Order, under police protection or may provide them with accommodation (for more than 24 hours) with the agreement of the parents.

2 In the UK, Virtual School Headteachers (VSH) have a statutory role in the education of LACYP and are responsible for monitoring and promoting the education of all children in care within their authority (DfE, 2018c). Educational Development Officers are often employed by local authority children's services to help develop, implement and monitor key education plans, based on local priorities and the national agenda.

3 Fifty-seven of these emails failed to reach the designated respondents due to redundant contact information. In turn, six questionnaires were not fully completed and thus were not included in the analysis.

4 Data collection with LACYP was originally secured through three separate local authorities, one of which withdrew at a later stage.

5 In the interests of anonymity, pseudonyms have been used throughout.