I just want to be normal: looked after young people’s experiences of feeling different

Professor Julie Selwyn, Dr Claire Baker

CELCIS

Over the last four years, we have been asking children and young people who are looked after (age 4 – 18 years old) to complete surveys on how they feel their lives are going. Currently there is no national collection of children and young people’s views on how they feel and are functioning.

National measures tend to focus on negatives, and do not tell us whether children feel they are flourishing in care. The surveys were therefore commissioned to identify local authorities in England that were providing good care experiences for children.