ABSTRACT

This chapter provides details of the young people’s personal characteristics - sex, religious background, age and ethnic group. It traces the pattern of their care careers, broken down into pre-care, in-care and after-care periods. The chapter discusses detail of the young people’s experience on leaving care, focusing on a range of key coping indicators such as education and family networks. The major personal characteristics of the ninety five young people on which information was gathered in the survey were gender, religion and age on leaving care. Gender did not appear to be an important factor influencing the age at which the children and young people entered care. Children and young people aged up to four on entry to care were three times more likely to leave care from a fostering situation than from a residential unit. The full range of placements were experienced by the young people during their period in care.