For National Care Leavers Week we have brought together Research in Practice learning resources to support outcomes for young people leaving care, including our open access strategic briefing that provides key messages from the Bright Spots programme.
Leaving care should make care-experienced young people feel supported, confident and ready for the future, however their journey can vary considerably depending on their experiences. The Bright Spots Programme, a partnership between Coram Voice and the University of Oxford, has been working with children in care and care leavers to explore their views and experiences to gain insight into what makes life good for them.
The briefing provides key messages from the programme, practice examples and reflective questions to help strategic leads and practitioners think about how they might use the evidence and be involved in the programme in the future. Although it is aimed at strategic leads and senior managers, the contents are relevant to anyone working with children in care and care leavers.
Additionally, our open access recorded webinar shares key learning from the Bright Spots programme so that professionals can better support children in care and care leavers.
Understanding what children and young people say improves their wellbeing and is essential if we want to make lives better.
View the briefing (open access).
View the webinar (open access).
Resources to support 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.
In this blog, Rebekah Pierre discusses Free Loaves on Fridays, an anthology which will invite writing from care-experienced people of all ages.
In this blog, Mari Eggins discusses how Carefree Cornwall's relationship-based model has enabled the organisation to survive and thrive during a period of growth and change.
Read
- Care leaver transitions: Strategic Briefing
- Reimagining residential children's homes: Understanding the national picture – Evidence Review
- Reimagining residential children's homes: Placement decision-making – Evidence Review
- Safeguarding during adolescence – the relationship between Contextual Safeguarding, Complex Safeguarding and Transitional Safeguarding
- The Care Experienced Conference 2019 - What’s happened since? Strategic Briefing
Watch
- 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
Resources to support Transitional Safeguarding
For young people transitioning from childhood to adulthood can have added pressures and challenges. Our resources aim to support the transition from one service to another or into independence.
Leaving care is a huge transitional period that many young people face. In this blog, three young people with care experience discuss the challenges young people face when transitioning from children's and adult's services, and the importance of Transitional Safeguarding.
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.
10,000 voices Bright Spots report: What is important to children and young people in care?
A new report by Bright Spots highlights what children in care have said about what is important to them and their wellbeing.