To support care leavers it’s important to celebrate their achievements, raise awareness of the challenges they face, and amplify their voices. For National Care Leavers Week, Research in Practice learning resources aim to support positive outcomes for young people leaving care.
Young people with care experience have expressed they want practitioners to have a better understanding of identity, including cultural awareness, gender and sexual identity, beliefs and religion. A Research in Practice tool aims to support the identity development of children and young people. The tool provides useful concepts about identity for social care practitioners and includes guidance about how they can support the identity development of young people. The Practice Tool will be open access until 1 November.
Practitioners need to be well-supported to have the time to build trusting relationships and work in partnership to understand their identity and lived experience. A collection of open access videos share learning from the Bright Spots programme. They present the views of children in care and care leavers about staying connected to the people who are important to them, and principles and tools for developing practice in this area.
Additionally, a new blog from Blue Cabin outlines Creative Aid, a co-creation project that aims to support young men with care experience in Deerbolt Prison, County Durham, to explore their life stories and develop their relationships with others, including family members and peers.
Social care practitioners play a significant role in the lives of children and young people, making decisions that have wide-ranging and long-lasting impacts. These resources aim to support positive outcomes for care leavers.
This practice tool considers how practitioners can explore and write about identity with children and young people. It gives a short introduction to some useful concepts about identity for social care practitioners and provides guidance about how practitioners could support children’s identity development.
View the Practice Tool (open access until 1 November).
These videos and resources share learning from the Bright Spots programme. They present the views of children in care and care leavers about staying connected to the people who are important to them, and principles and tools for developing practice in this area.
Care leavers are over-represented in the prison population. Blue Cabin's Creative Aid project aims to support young men with care experience in Deerbolt Prison, County Durham to explore their life stories and develop their relationships with others, including family members and peers.
Supporting the identity development of care leavers
These Research in Practice resources are designed for practitioners to support the identity development of young people with care experience, including life story work, using genograms, and the importance of good recording.
- Enabling and embedding creative participation in child and family social work: Practice Tool
- Good practice in recording and access to records: Strategic Briefing
- Life Story Work: Practice Tool
- Nurturing creativity: Blue Cabin’s Creative Life Story Work programme
- Using genograms in practice: Practice Tool
Supporting young people leaving care
Leaving care is a huge transitional period that many young people face. Our resources aim to support positive outcomes for young people leaving care.
- Care leaver transitions: Strategic Briefing
- Free loaves on Fridays
- Improving the lives of care experienced young people
- Safeguarding during adolescence – the relationship between Contextual Safeguarding, Complex Safeguarding and Transitional Safeguarding
- The Care Experienced Conference 2019 - What’s happened since? Strategic Briefing
- Risks, Resilience and Relationships: Safeguarding adolescents into adulthood – Recorded Webinar
- Setting up care leavers to succeed: Online learning package
- Trauma-informed responses in relationship-based practice: Recorded Webinar
- Understanding the experiences of Muslim children and young people in care: Recorded Webinar
Understanding, exploring and supporting children’s identity development: Practice Tool (2023)
This practice tool provides guidance about how practitioners can explore and write about identity with children and young people. It includes tips and practical tools, drawn from practice experience and research evidence.
Supporting young people to stay connected to the people who matter: Video learning resources
These videos and resources share learning from the Bright Spots programme. They present the views of children in care and care leavers about staying connected to the people who are important to them, and principles and tools for developing practice in this area.
The wellbeing of children in care and care leavers - learning from the Bright Spots Programme: Strategic Briefing (2022)
This briefing provides an overview of the key messages from the Bright Spots Programme. Although it is aimed at strategic leads and senior managers, the contents are of relevance to anyone working with children in care and care leavers.