Descriptive profile of mothers by their experience of out-of-home care in childhood: evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

It is well documented that care-experience can lead to more problematic post-16 transitions and poorer adult outcomes, but less is known about what works to lessen the associations. This research addresses six of the seven key areas of concern identified in the 2013 Care Leaver Strategy – education, employment, finance, health, housing and on-going support – to help inform strategies to assist agencies working with care-leavers and families who are struggling across domains. We find that mothers who had out-of-home care experience in their childhood have poorer socio-economic and psycho-social resources available to them in adulthood, but when their age, ethnicity and qualification levels are taken in to account, any negative pregnancy, childbirth and parenting experiences are fully attenuated. However, care leavers who became parents continue to obtain less education, and experience poorer financial and housing circumstances. Of particular concern are the high levels of general and mental health problems observed across a range of measures together with low levels of life satisfaction in general. The wellbeing of one of the most disadvantaged group of women in our society clearly needs to be better addressed if we are to avoid the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage associated with care experience being passed on to their children.