It all starts with the children

A good friend has just sent me a small book called Handle with Care by Harriet Sergeant. It looks to be a damning appraisal of the UK Child-in-the-care-of-the-state system. As the author observes, the state makes a rotten parent. But to be fair the odds are stacked against the state succeeding from the outset. Here is an excerpt and I will probably post more as I read through it.

The hardest children to help are those who have been severely maltreated in their early years. How we are loved and cared for dictates the kind of people we become. Sue Gerhardt, in her book Why Love Matters, blames the hormone cortisol which floods the brain of a baby exposed too often or too long to stressful situations. From then on it will either over- or under-produce cortisol whenever the child is exposed to stress. Too much is linked to depression and fearfulness; too little to emotional detachment and aggression. Study after study emphasises the importance for these children of forming emotional bonds with adults.......

This year approximately 6,000 young people will emerge from the care of the state. What is their future? Of these 6,000, 4,500 of them will leave with no educational qualifications whatsoever. Within two years of leaving care 3,000 will be unemployed, 2,100 will be mothers or pregnant and 1,200 will be homeless. Out of the 6,000 just 60 will make it to university. Care is failing on a scale that is catastrophic.

Proportionately New Zealand has more children in state care than the United Kingdom. I can think of no reason why our system would be much better, or much worse, for that matter.