New research published by CASCADE at Cardiff University for What Works for Children’s Social Care (WWCSC) has found that young people who were either in care or care experienced at 13 or 14 years old had significantly lower expectations of attending higher education than their peers. The study also found that young people who thought, in Year 9, that they were likely to apply to a higher education provider (HEP) were much less likely to be in higher education aged 20 if they were care experienced. The findings were drawn from new analysis of the Next Steps dataset, and qualitative interviews with 23 care experienced young people.