Lifelong Links improves children’s mental health and wellbeing, study shows
Nina Jacobs
Friday, April 1, 2022
A programme helping children in care to maintain positive relationships with family members has been found to deliver year-on-year improvements to their mental health and wellbeing, a study shows.
The research, carried out by the Rees Centre at Oxford University on behalf of the Family Rights Group (FRG), looked into the effectiveness of its Lifelong Links programme that aims to help children reconnect with people important to them.
The findings not only revealed a significant improvement in children’s mental health and wellbeing but also young people being more settled in their foster care or children’s home.
The initiative, developed by FRG in collaboration with key stakeholders including local authorities, children in care and care leavers, was initially funded through the Department for Education’s Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme as a trial in 12 local authorities. It is now being implemented in more than 30 authorities.
It sees a Lifelong Links coordinator work with a child to find out who they would like to be back in touch with and to bring them together in a family group conference.
The longitudinal study followed the outcomes of 164 children in care who had taken part in Lifelong Links from two of the 12 trial local authorities.
Placement stability was found to improve over time for these children and young people, with the average number of placements dropping from 1.99 prior to Lifelong links, to 1.31 at the time the research was carried out.
Meanwhile, scores recorded for improvements to children’s mental health and wellbeing showed an improvement year on year.
Average Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire scores, a tool used to measure mental health and wellbeing, were on average 16,77 before children and young people took part in the programme.
They fell to 12.44 within three years of being helped by Lifelong Links, with a reduction in score indicating a sign of improvement.
The study builds on an independent evaluation conducted by the Rees Centre and published in 2020, which showed more than three-quarters of children and young people who participated in Lifelong Links felt an improved sense of identity.
There was also a significant positive impact on young people remaining in their placement, with 74 per cent of children and young people that took part in Lifelong Links remaining in their foster or children’s home a year later, compared with 41 per cent of a comparator group.
Children and young people on average increased their social connections from 7 to 26.
The findings indicate that the programme can help shift the culture in the way local authorities work with birth families, the FRG says.
But there is an ongoing need for commitment to Lifelong Links across all parts of children’s services, it adds.
FRG chief executive Cathy Ashley said she wanted Lifelong Links to be offered to more than 30 local authorities that were currently using the programme.
“Too often the care system breaks rather than builds children’s relationships, leaving them lonely and isolated, with lasting consequences.
“Yet we all need people in our lives to turn to emotionally and practically. Lifelong Links involves a trained coordinator working with the child to find out who is important to them, who they would like to be back in touch with and then brings these people together to make a plan of support with and for the child.
“And as this new study finds, the results can be transformational for the child or young person,” she said.