Category: Publications

12 Nov 20

The voices of care-experienced children and young people must be at the heart of the Government’s imminent review of children’s social care – that is the message of a briefing published today by Coram Voice and the Rees Centre that gives care-experienced young people the opportunity to tell policy makers directly how they believe the current system needs to change.

The Voices of Children in Care and Care Leavers on What Makes Life Good focuses on what care-experienced children and young people have said about their wellbeing, drawing on Coram Voice’s ongoing work with thousands of care-experience children and young people.

In its introduction the briefing says: “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. This does not tell us what being in care is like for children and young people.”

Drawing on learning from the Coram Voice  Bright Spots programme, a partnership with the Rees Centre at the University of Oxford, the briefing sets out key calls from the children and young people who collaborated in its publication. These include:

• Supporting children in care and care leavers to keep and develop their relationships with those that are important to them.
• Helping children and young people to participate in decisions, understand the system and their rights and be free from discrimination.
• Giving children and young people a chance to learn how to manage the challenges in life and have the opportunities they need.
• Supporting children and young people to come to terms with what has happened to them and make them feel that they have the same value as other children.
• Developing services that care leavers can trust to be there for them when they need them and support staff to be caring, available and actively engage care leaver.
• Supporting young people to manage the challenges of independent living.
• Helping care leavers feel better about themselves and their lives by providing emotional support.

Linda Briheim-Crookall Head of Policy and Practice Development at Coram Voice said:

“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?

“Government and those leading the Care Review should use the Bright Spots indicators and what we have learned from the thousands of care experienced voices who have responded to our surveys to establish a care system that not only keeps young people safe but helps them to flourish, by designing services and providing support focused on what wellbeing is to them.”

Brigid Robinson, Managing Director of Coram Voice said: “We feel that in order to have a full and effective Care Review, the voices of children and young people in care and care leavers must be at the heart of the process.

“Through our surveys, Coram Voice has heard from  an unprecedented number of children and young people about their experiences in care. This is vital work and the findings should be used to help shape and improve the care system.”

“We hope to see the Care Review explore measures to improve wellbeing for care experienced children and young people and put them at the heart of any decisions made about them.”

Read the full report

 

30 Oct 20

Coram Voice has today (30 October 2020) launched the latest version of our ‘Sorted and Supported’ publication, a guide for young people leaving care on their rights and entitlements.

‘Sorted and Supported’ explains what young people leaving care’s rights and entitlements are and what to do if you don’t feel that you are being properly supported. ‘Sorted and Supported’ also explains the support that should be provided by local authority Children’s Services (sometimes called Children’s Social Care or Social Services) and how and when you can get this.

To give you all the information you need ‘Sorted and Supported’ covers:

• The law and your rights
• Advocacy
• The different legal status for care leavers:
  • Eligible children
  • Relevant children
  • Children who are homeless or not safe at home
  • Former relevant children
  • Qualifying care leavers
• Young refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and young people without British citizenship
• Care leavers with disabilities

It is important to remember, that as a young person leaving care, you have the right to be involved in any decision that affects you and you also have the right to have an independent advocate.  To help you with this ‘Sorted and Supported’ has information about what an advocate does and how to get one through our Always Heard service.

Managing Director Brigid Robinson said of the new publication. “We are delighted to be putting out a new version of ‘Sorted and Supported’ during National Care Leavers week.

“We have always had excellent feedback on the publication and we know it is vital to helping so many young care leavers understand their rights and entitlements. We hope that this version will continue to help inform young care leavers and get them the support that they are entitled to.”

Read the full ‘Sorted and Supported’ publication

Even with the help of ‘Sorted and Supported’ leaving care can all seem very complicated. If you are a care leaver, and want more help or advice contact Coram Voice’s helpline free on 0808 800 5792 or visit  to get independent Always Heard information from one of our advocates.

You can visit My Rights for more information about leaving care.

 

Coram Voice has today (30 October 2020) released an executive summary of the report ‘What Makes Life Good? Care Leavers Views on their Wellbeing’. Created in collaboration with The Rees Centre, this is a new analysis of the views and experiences of over 1,800 care leavers in England and has identified 10 key issues that lead to high wellbeing, as well as recommendations for improvements.

The research highlights the importance of understanding how care leavers feel about their lives, their hopes and feelings, in order to deliver high quality services and support. While government statistics focus on objective measures and professional assessments such as education and employment, this gives only a partial picture of care leavers lives. This study is the first of its kind in examining the subjective wellbeing of a large sample of care leavers by including their voice in the conversation.

The report found that that high wellbeing in care leavers is associated with feeling less lonely and stressed, happier with how they look, feeling settled, positive about the future and experiencing positive feelings and emotions. Having people in their lives providing emotional support, as well as feeling that they were treated the same or better than other young people and were feeling safe where they were living were also identified as indicators of high wellbeing.

Brigid Robinson, Managing Director of Coram Voice, said: “Our What Makes Life Good report firmly puts the voices of young people leaving care central by understanding from their experiences, what makes life good. Our aspirations for young people leaving care should be the same as for our own children; that they thrive and grow to become confident young adults able to find their way in the world. 

“To achieve this, we need to understand what is important to them; what they love doing, their hopes and feelings and what could make things better.  What Makes Life Good does this, and through this unique insight into young care leavers subjective wellbeing, provides clear recommendations for policy and practice to make life better for young people leaving care so they can flourish into adulthood.”

Care leavers were asked the same four questions used in Office for National Statistics (ONS) surveys with the general population of the same age, enabling a direct comparison of wellbeing between the two groups. The focus on factors that can improve care leavers’ wellbeing emerged after the research found that much higher proportions of care leavers have low wellbeing across a range of measures compared to the general population of young people. Over a quarter (26%) have low life satisfaction compared to just 3% of 16-24 year olds in the general population. Nearly a quarter (23%) of care leavers said they did not feel that things they did in life were worthwhile, in contrast to just 4% of their peers, whilst more than one in five (22%) of care leavers said they feel lonely always or most of the time, compared to one in ten young people in the general population.

In addition to the disparity between care leavers and young people in the general population, the report has also found significant variation between care leavers’ wellbeing across the different local authorities. Only 14% of care leavers experienced low wellbeing at the highest performing local authority which increased to 44% at the lowest performing local authority.

The report calls for leaving care services to be “levelled up” and for care leavers’ positive experiences to be replicated for all young people in care.

One care leaver said: “There needs to be a national service that offers all the same services to everyone. It doesn’t make sense for one care leaver to be exceptionally comfortable and another to be destitute.”

Key recommendations for local authorities, guided by factors that care leavers themselves have identified, include:

• Improving connections and trusting relationships and addressing loneliness.
• Providing emotional and mental health support to address stress, negativity and help care leavers feel good about their future.
• Providing money management and financial support to help care leavers cope financially.

Improving accommodation support to help care leavers feel safe and settled in their homes.

This executive summary is published ahead of the full report. The report is the first in a series of reports analysing the responses of 10,000 care leavers and children in care on what makes a positive difference to their wellbeing.

Read the executive summary