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ABSTRACTAgainst a background of research and national statistics that consistently show that educational participation and achievement of young people in and leaving care is significantly lower than is the case for the non‐care population, previous research has shown the positive impact that social, leisure and informal learning activities can have on the educational participation and achievements of young people, and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The UK: Care Matters Green Paper stated that involvement in leisure and social activities can have a positive impact on the self‐esteem of young people in and leaving care and upon their educational attainment and later success in the labour market.This paper reports on the English results of a cross‐national study of young people from a public care background and their pathways to education in Europe. Using case study examples it explores the impact that social, leisure and informal learning activities can have on educational participation and educational pathways of young people in and leaving care. The paper argues that, in view of these findings, encouraging and supporting young people in and leaving care into these types of activities should be a priority for social care professionals, carers and teachers.

Many thousands of very young children pass through the UK care system every year. Understandably, social workers are reluctant to separate children from their parents, and legal protections designed to prevent the separation from becoming permanent lead to constant delay in making longer-term plans. The aim is that the children should either be returned to their birth families or placed for adoption, but this is not achieved in up to 50% of cases. Consequently, many infants and toddlers remain in foster care, intended to be temporary, for long periods. Yet we know little about their lives in care or who looks after them. Research on foster care and on early childhood education and care (ECEC) has developed on separate and unrelated lines, resulting in an extreme shortage of empirical evidence about the care and education of fostered children under school age. Lack of attention to this critical period of life fails to take account of advances in research both on early brain development and on the lasting effects of adverse childhood experiences. Meanwhile, young children continue to be moved between short-term foster placements for administrative reasons, ignoring the undisputed importance of stable early attachments. The potential of foster care as a learning and therapeutic resource in the early years has also been largely overlooked. Better mental health and educational attainment for children in out-of-home care require a much stronger policy focus on their earliest experiences and developmental progress. This article argues that there is an urgent need for research-based information to guide policy and practice.

Young people in state care not only lose support, usually at 18 years of age, but also experience unequal participation in post-secondary education. This has raised concern about the importance of widening participation (WP) for care-experienced young people (CEYP). However, CEYP are often institutionally stigmatised and this could be worsened by WP interventions that are framed by deficit discourses. Weaving together social pedagogies and social justice theories, the article aims to reframe WP away from deficit discourses through recognition of the systemic, structural and cultural inequalities that most CEYP must navigate to access formal education. We introduce the concept of therelational navigator, in which a pedagogical relationship enables the navigator to 'pilot' through complex systems and transitional processes in collaboration with, and through 'walking alongside', the CEYP with respect to their lived contexts and experiences. This article draws from the reflections of WP navigators situated in two small-scale WP projects, one in an English museum and the other in an Australian university. Our analysis of the reflections of the WP project navigators is offered as a preliminary exploration of the potential therelational navigatoras a way to shift deficit discourses and work towards a reframing of WP through a social pedagogical perspective.

Objective: This paper reports first results from a survey of 992 parents and parents to be living in an ethnically diverse and socio-economically unequal borough of East London during the coronavirus pandemic that reduced mobility, closed services and threatened public health. Background: Little is known about the place based impacts of the pandemic on families with young children. We describe the living circumstances of families with children under five or expecting a baby living in Tower Hamlets during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and then examine the relative importance of household characteristics such as ethnicity and household income for adverse impacts on survey respondents, as seen in mental health outcomes. Method: a community survey sample recruited with support from the local council comprised 75% mothers/pregnant women, 25% fathers/partners of pregnant women. Reflecting the borough population, 35 percent were White British or Irish and 36 percent were Bangladeshi, and the remainder were from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds. Adopting an assets based approach, we describe material, familial and community assets using three household income bands and seven ethnic groups. We then use regressions to identify which assets were most important in mitigating adversity. Results: We find that material assets (income, employment, food insecurity, housing quality) were often insecure and in decline but familial assets (home caring practices, couple relationships) were largely sustained. Community assets (informal support, service provision) were less available or means of access had changed. Our analyses find that while descriptively ethnicity structured adverse impacts of the pandemic related changes to family life, income and couple relationships were the most important assets for mitigating adversity as seen in mental health status. Conclusion: Supporting family assets will require close attention to generating local and decent work as well as enhancing access to community assets.

The policy rhetoric of the UK Coalition government's 'Troubled Families' initiative, and that of New Labour's earlier Respect Agenda, share an emphasis on families' responsibilities, or rather their irresponsibility, and their financial costs to society. Giving children a chance of a better life coincides, in this framing, with reducing costs for the taxpayer. The research reported here was based on a national study of Family Intervention Projects (FIPs), funded by the UK government between 2009 and 2012, beginning under New Labour, continuing over a period when the FIP programme was discontinued, and ending after the Troubled Families programme had begun. The research involved over 100 in-depth interviews with stakeholders, including service managers, family key workers, and caregivers and children in twenty families, to consider critical questions about the kinds of trouble that families experience in their lives, and how they are recognised in the policy and practice of intensive family intervention.

AbstractChildren's lives in the Covid‐19 pandemic were subject to unparalleled restrictions on and disruption to their daily lives. This paper explores the day‐to‐day relational, social participation and activities of young children in one East London borough in early 2021, as told through qualitative interviews with their parents. We adopt a social‐ecological model of children's development, a child rights focused understanding of well‐being, underpinned by an agentic view of both parents and children. We find that for some children, parents had additional time to spend with them and new activities were possible. But for others, particularly those living 'compressed lives' in low‐income households and over‐crowded accommodation with no outside space of their own, all three aspects—relational, participatory and activities—were significantly diminished.

The Family Justice Review (FJR) highlighted the need for timely decision-making and high quality assessments in care proceedings and recommended wide-ranging reforms intended to put children's interests back at the heart of the process (Ministry of Justice, the Department for Education and the Welsh Government, 2011). During the course of the FJR concerns were raised 'about the value of residential assessments of parenting capacity , particularly set against their cost and lack of clear evidence of their benefits' (p.18). The Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre (CWRC) was commissioned by the Department for Education (DFE) to undertake a small-scale research study to explore the role, costs and contribution that residential parenting assessments make to timely and effective decision-making in public law.

Abstract
Aim
Families from socioeconomically deprived backgrounds appear to have been greatly impacted and face worsening inequalities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With more than half of children in Newham, East London, living in poverty, this study aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns on families with a child under 5 years-old in Newham and identify their immediate needs to inform recovery efforts.

Subjects and methods
This was a qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 participants (2 fathers; 11 mothers) exploring the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns on family life, neighbourhood and community and important relationships in the child's world.

Results
All parents experienced significant impacts on family life and well-being because of the pandemic. Families were placed under increased stress and were concerned about the impacts on child development. Low-income families were most disadvantaged, experiencing lack of professional support, community engagement and inadequate housing.

Conclusion
Families were placed under increasing pressure during the pandemic and recovery efforts need to target those most affected, such as families from low-income households. Recovery efforts should target child social and language development, family mental health, professional service engagement and community involvement.