Exploring the Findings of from Care to Independence

Exploring the findings of From Care to Independence

From Care to Independence is a five-year project funded by the Big Lottery Fund, and delivered by The Prince’s Trust. The aim is to consider “what works” in supporting care leavers into positive outcomes such as education, training or employment, and to improve their skills and confidence. As part of From Care to Independence, the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) has been conducting research predominantly with care leavers andProgramme Executives on Fairbridge to analyse the benefits of the programme for care leavers and identify recommendations for the Prince’s Trust, other delivery organisations and policy makers. On 22nd May 2017, we released the final findings from the project.

On Friday 2nd June and Thursday 15th June 2017, The Prince’s Trust and NCB hosted two workshops to explore the findings of the project. We welcomed social workers, personal advisers, managers and other professionalsfrom local authorities and the charity sector to the events, which were held in London and Manchester.

Challenges and barriers

The care leavers we worked with on Fairbridge faced challenges such as:

Overall, professionals at the workshops agreed that the barriers faced by care leavers on Fairbridgewere similar to those faced by the care leaversthat they were working with around the country. Workshop attendees also noted other barriers, such as:

• Trauma and past experiences
• Staff turnover and capacity (as well as staff resilience to support young people with high levels of need)
• Leaving care sooner than their peers would normally leave home
• Limited preparation for independence at an early enough stage in their care journey
• Lack of “safety net” and support networks
• Access to housing and benefits

Social and rural isolation

• Stigma
• Lack of identity
• The fact that technology is not always available or responsive to young peoples’ needs e.g. no access to channels such as Whatsapp to communicate, and staff do not have smartphones in order to interact with young people via social channels
• Expectations placed on care leavers by professionals. This could take the form of “expecting too much” of young people (e.g. expecting them to live alone at an early age) or “expecting too little” (e.g. not being ambitious enough for the young people we work with and focusing on negative outcomes for care leavers.)

Good practice… “What works?”

Our research with care leavers on Fairbridge provided insight into “what works” in supporting care leavers at three main stages: initial engagement; sustaining engagement, and supporting care leavers to end their involvement with a service.

Practitioners at the workshops echoed many of these findings. There was a lot of discussion around the relative merits and drawbacks of an “open door policy,” and many noted the importance of delivering support in a flexible way. Others agreed that if a young person’s friends have a positive experience of a programme, then they are more likely to engage with it. Others noted how crucial it was to plan and prepare for the end of support.

Practitioners also noted examples of “what works”, including:

• Introducing young people to leaving care teams and the concept of leaving care at a much earlier stage
• Ensuring that internal local authority departments work together, as well as working well with external agencies and central government departments. For example, local authorities could deliver a joined up approach by exempting care leavers from council tax, giving care leavers priority access to housing, ensuring that care leavers have free access to leisure facilities, ensuring that care leavers can access free transport/bus passes etc.
• Implementing plans and strategies for leaving care or ending engagement with a service, and being clear about what this will look like
• Using social media and technology to keep in touch
• Ensuring that practitioners and workers exemplify certain attributes, such as persistence, honesty, consistency, and positivity about moving on to next steps
• Ensuring that staff have manageable caseloads

Finally, some practitioners mentioned specific initiatives which worked well for the care leavers they worked with, such as the introduction of Staying Put, whereby young people can stay living with their foster parents until the age of 21.

One group noted that as professionals we should consistently remind ourselves that we are corporate parents to young people in care, and should always be asking ourselves “would this service be good enough for my own children?”

Acting on the findings

Finally, we asked attendees to think about what they would like to take away from the findings, and what actions they can implement in their own organisations.

They suggested some fantastic ideas, including:

• Promote organisational change to create more collaborative working inside and outside of local authorities, such as working with education providers etc.

• Consultation with care leavers to identify their priorities to work on

• Set up a peer mentoring scheme for care leavers to mentor younger looked after children

• Raise awareness of this report and research amongst staff, and focus on ideas to implement

Considering that many of the project’s recommendations focus on peer-informed recruitment and engagement, strong multi-agency working and information sharing and transition planning, these are some great first steps!

How can I take action to respond to the project’s findings?

The Prince’s Trust are already taking actions in response to the project’s findings, and we are really encouraged to see that other organisations are responding to the research in such a positive and proactive way.

We would like to invite all organisations and professionals supporting care leavers to explore the research findings, and to consider how you might respond to the recommendations.

The research report and executive summary are hosted on The Prince’s Trust website.

Also on the website is a film produced by Headliners, who have worked in partnership with The Prince’s Trust and NCB to produce a young person-led film in response to the project’s findings.

Should you have any questions about the From Care to Independence project or our research findings, please contact the Policy and Public Affairs Team at The Prince’s Trust ( or 020 7543 1277) or the Research and Policy Team at the National Children’s Bureau (Research& or 020 7843 6000).

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