The leaving care process is awkward to write about; it’s difficult to talk about a young person leaving care, when some young people reflect that “we don’t leave care, care leaves us”. It’s difficult to write about moving into independence as this insinuates a reliance on self-sufficiency, on facing and going at the world alone. When really, who is truly independent? Instead, let our trajectory of focus change from being a move ‘out of care’ [...]
A summary of recent research reports and articles affecting the residential sector. This month we include links to research on young people's views about what helps when they've been missing from care and a position statement from the ADCS on the care system with ideas for future development, as well as information about the consultation now open for unregulated provision. Welcome Thank you for your interest in the first of [...]
Evidence suggests that looked after children can be at increased risk of many of the harms known to be linked with going missing. It is therefore important that professionals and carers responsible for a child’s care prioritise the response to missing and know how and when to report an incident to the police. Children who are looked after in the care system are disproportionately likely to go missing. One in every ten looked after children [...]
Coronavirus; impact on children and young people’s mental health Children in care are four times more likely to have a mental health problem than children living with their birth families[i]. Prior to the pandemic, these mental health needs were often unmet, putting children at risk of poor outcomes, including placement instability and poor educational achievement. Given that the current public health crisis has led to reports that distress has increased amongst young people, and that [...]
Why we must support resilience in children’s homes staff, by Margaret Davies, Trainer and Consultant at Children’s Homes Quality. Children in care need staff who can connect with them open-heartedly, yet the experience of working in the residential sector is often personally intense and challenging. Staff are commonly at risk of experiencing ‘secondary trauma’ or ‘moral distress’ which will lead to protective responses and blocked care if we do not have well-developed programs [...]
The residential childcare sector is known to have insufficient capacity to meet the needs of the children coming into care. However, the available figures belie this fact suggesting that we have an excess of up to 3,000 places unoccupied at any one time. This paper by the ICHA looks at why this situation has arisen. It finds that there is no one cause but an interplay of factors. Furthermore, the situation was almost inevitable due [...]
