Boarding school solution to care

There is a suggestion that boarding schools will benefit vulnerable children

Vulnerable children could go to private boarding schools rather than be taken into care, a headteacher has suggested.

Emma Taylor, head of public school Christ College, Brecon in Powys, said boarding schools could help some children needing more stability.

She said charities, the Welsh Assembly Government and schools could cooperate to fund places for children who would otherwise go into the care system.

But ministers said they had no plans to pursue the boarding option.

Recent estimates put the cost of looking after vulnerable children in Wales at up to £286,000 per year, for those placed outside their original local authority boundaries.

Christ College's fees start at just under £16,000 per year for Year 7 and 8 boarders, rising to £20,430 for Years 9 to 13.

But the college said bursaries and help from charitable bodies could reduce the cost of local authorities placing children in private boarding schools considerably.

Ms Taylor told the BBC Wales Dragon's Eye programme that during her career she had seen the experience of boarding "do some some fantastic transforming things in the lives of young people".

"My idea is that boarding school, as an option, should always be part of a menu of options for any child who is having difficulties, who needs some stability, perhaps a greater self-esteem, a greater sense of their own possibilities - the things they could achieve in life.

"We already take pupils who already have considerable difficulties at home.

Emma Taylor said boarding should be considered on a case by case basis

"It is genuinely one of the reasons that parents or families chose to send their children boarding anyway, but of course they have to have the funds.

"We are a private fee-paying school.

"What I'm proposing really, is that we might have a partnership between government, charitable organisations and the school itself, and indeed other boarding schools in Wales, to allow individuals who can't afford it, but who could do with that, who might otherwise end up in care".

Ms Taylor said encouraging cooperation between the private and state sectors in education had been a "major theme" in England but not in Wales and she hoped to start a debate on the idea.

The assembly government said it had no plans to put children who had problems, and might otherwise go into care, into independent boarding schools.

Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood said the private school option might appear "artificially attractive on the surface".

But she warned that "by taking some pupils out of the state sector and given them a privileged education, the danger is that the service for everybody else is downgraded over time".

"What incentive is there for government to invest in public services if the private sector is picking up the tab?" she said.

Care system

Ms Wood also questioned how the state would decide who should be placed in the boarding schools

However, she conceded that there were major problems with the care system.

"We know that if you're in care then you're 50 times more likely to end up in prison as an adult, 60 times more likely to end up as homeless as an adult.

"So there is something wrong with the care system, I would accept that, but for me the solution would be to upgrade the chances for all of those children (in care) and not just for a select few," Ms Wood added.