Over the last decade, our Bright Spots programme has asked thousands of children and young people in and around the care system how they feel about their lives. This has grown into a uniquely rich insight into the well-being of children in care and care leavers. Over the past year, to mark Coram Voice’s 50th anniversary, the Coram Institute has this been analysing this data and today publishes From Surviving to Thriving: The seven drivers of well-being for children in care and care leavers.
Developed in partnership with Professor Julie Selwyn at the University of Oxford, the Bright Spots surveys were co-produced with children and young people to measure what they felt made their lives good. The new report draws on 27,000 of those responses from children and young people aged 4-25 and over, across more than 70 local authorities across the UK, gathered between 2015-2024. We also analysed over 100,000 written comments using a closed AI system and Coram researchers and held workshops with seven of Coram Voice’s Care Experienced Consultants to look at themes and how to present findings.
Today’s report highlights how vital relationships and safe homes are to care-experienced children and young people’s well-being.
84% of children in care aged 8-18 say that their life is getting better and around four in ten (39%) of children aged 11-18 have very high well-being. However, well-being scores decrease with age and there is a stark drop-off in well-being rates for young people who have left care.
The report also finds:
- Trusting relationships are central to well-being; having trusted adults (including carers and workers) and maintaining ties with friends and siblings strongly influences well-being. Leaving Care Personal Advisers (PAs) are a common source of emotional support for care leavers, second only to their friends.
- For care leavers, engagement in education, training, or employment was linked to high well-being. Almost nine in ten (87%) young people who remained with their foster carers after the age of 18 were in education, training or employment, compared with just over half of those living in supported accommodation.
- The percentage of care leavers who report they struggle to cope financially has increased from 18% between 2017 and 2020 to 22% between 2021 and 2024
- Across all measures, girls and young women in and leaving care tended to have lower well-being than boys and young men. This mirrors findings in the general population
The report sets out seven drivers of well-being based on statistical analysis and children and young people’s comments. Embedding these drivers into policy and practice is key to making sure children in care and care leavers can thrive.
Carol Homden, CEO of Coram, said:
It is a tribute to all who provide care that a significant majority of children in care responding to Coram Voice’s Bright Spots surveys say that life is getting better.
But it is clear that far too many, and particularly young women and those who have multiple moves, struggle more as they get older with a high number of care leavers experiencing low well-being. This is getting worse and there is an urgent need to make the transition from care more gradual, with greater emphasis on preparation, planning and supportive relationships so that all young people in and leaving care can thrive not just survive.
Alfie-James Waring, a Coram Voice care-experienced consultant, said:
“For care-experienced people, well-being is not just about feeling happy, it is about having stability, safety, and people who listen. Growing up in care, I learned early on how to survive, not how to feel. There were times I had to hide my emotions just to get through the day.
“That is why it is so important we talk about well-being for care-experienced young people. Conversations like this remind us that we are not alone and that it is okay to put our well-being first. It is a way to break the silence that the system sometimes leaves us with, and to start changing how care is seen and delivered.”
Coram’s current Christmas campaign, ‘Home is where the start is’, focuses on the importance of safe loving homes for all children and young people, with donations supporting children in and leaving care. Find out more at www.coram.org.uk/christmas/