The charity Coram Voice and the University of Bristol carried out a national study on 2,263 children and young people aged between 4 and 18 about their experiences of being in care.
3 surveys were created looking at:
RELATIONSHIPS - Contact with birth parents, siblings and pets, trusting relationships with social workers, carers, and friends, stability of placements and social workers.
RESILIENCE - Having a key trusted adult, opportunities to play, have activities/ hobbies and access to the natural world, getting second chances, enjoying school, support for learning, learning life skills.
RIGHTS - feeling safe and free from bullying, knowing and being able to contact your social worker and the right to speak in private. Feeling included in social work decision-making, not being made to feel different because of being looked after.
RECOVERY - Feeling settled, liking bedroom, having sensitive carers, being trusted, parity with peers, access to computers/ tablets, support services to help with difficulties, having an age appropriate account of personal history, happiness with appearance and feeling that life is getting better.
Key findings:
The report calls for social workers and carers to do more to explain to children why they are in care and ensure every looked-after child has a trusted adult in their life. Social workers and carers should also ask children in care about their sibling relationships and intervene if sibling bullying is a problem, it adds.
This is a great report. Click here to see the full report