The Voices of Children In Care and Care Leavers on What Makes Life good: Recommendations for Reviewing the Care System

Voices Improving Care team (2020) The Voices of Children In Care and Care Leavers on What Makes Life good: Recommendations for Reviewing the Care System, Coram Voice & the Rees Centre at the University of Oxford

To make children and young people’s lives better, we need to know them, what
they love doing, their hopes and feelings. However, the state, as their parent, often does not fully know what matters to the children and young people it cares for.

Official statistics used to monitor the care system provide only a partial picture of
children in care and care leavers’ lives by focusing on objective measures and adult assessments of how children and young people are doing – e.g. where they live and how they are doing educationally. This does not tell us what being in care is like for children and young people: do they feel happy, safe and think they are doing well?

When developing policy and practice in the care system, the key question should be – will children in care and care leavers feel that their lives got better as a result? Care should prioritise what is important to children and young people themselves.

Over the past five years, we have sought to address this gap by collecting over 13,500 care experienced voices through our Your Life, Your Care and Your Life Beyond Care surveys. These ‘voices’ give an unprecedented insight into children in care and care leavers’ subjective well-being.

The surveys were developed together with almost 200 children and young people as part of the Bright Spots programme, a partnership between Coram Voice and the University of Oxford. Working with over 50 Local Authorities we have systematically surveyed care experienced children and young people aged 4 to 25 years old, providing unprecedented insights into children in care and care leavers’ subjective wellbeing and what they think would make care better.