Young people set out recommendations for Care Review

A new report, published by Barnardo’s, details a list of eight recommendations that care-experienced young people say should be tackled by the review, chaired by Josh MacAlister. 

Barnardo’s worked with eight care-experienced young people in a series of workshops with themes directly decided by young people to establish the recommendations.

• Interview: Josh MacAlister, Care Review chair

• Analysis: Call for review to recognise the factors in risk-averse practice

Issues included loneliness and isolation, better early support for whole families, prevention against discrimination, and being listened to. 

Participants said young people in care want to take part in activities that are easily available to other children like going on school trips or visiting friends’ houses. 

Even when such activities are technically possible, rules mean children have to “jump through extra hoops, like asking a friend’s parents to undergo a police check before they can stay over, which they find embarrassing”, the report states.

One young person said: "I would go round to friends’ houses and deliberately not tell my carers where I was going as I didn’t want them to be phoning up asking friends’ parents for a Disclosure and Barring Service check, the system encouraged me to lie just to spend time with my friends.” 

Young people also raised how care can be a lonely and isolating experience.

“Children can feel cut off from their friends and family from the moment that they enter care and often feel that it is their fault or that they have done something wrong,” according to Barnardo’s.

They recommend an expansion of services such as a "buddy" to help those in care to meet each other and build friendship groups and networks.  

The group also felt that children in care were frequently not listened to when it came to important decisions.

One young person said they had to move in with a relative with whom they did not feel safe. Another was placed in several unsuccessful foster placements before being finally given their wish of being placed in a residential care setting. 

Staff turnover was a key concern and many of the young people had been supported by up to 10 different social workers before they reached 18, meaning they constantly had to retell their story to different professionals. 

“They argue there needs to be a change in focus in social work, so workers can spend more time getting to know children and less time on paperwork,” the report states.

It was also felt that the current system of mental health support for children and young people is inadequate, with long waiting lists and high thresholds for support. 

The group called for the care review to recommend better support for young people when they leave the care system. 

The report highlights how many young people “still feel unprepared at the age of 18 for the responsibility expected of them and that the system does not do enough to give care leavers the practical support for the real-life challenges they face like how to pay bills or deal with basic house maintenance”.

The group’s recommendations include better support for struggling families in trouble, services to tackle loneliness and isolation in every local authority, consistent workers who have time to spend time with young people and build relationships and better access to mental health support. 

Michelle Lee-Izu, co-chief executive at Barnardo’s, said: "Young people who grew up in local authority care have made a powerful set of recommendations aimed at improving the system – and they deserve to be taken seriously.  

“This new ‘checklist’ sets out the changes that are most needed in order to transform support for some of the most vulnerable children in our society.  

“Young people are telling us that families should receive support earlier, that children in care need strong relationships with their social workers and better access to mental health services, and that no-one should face discrimination or stigma because they didn’t grow up with their birth family.  

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity with the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in England, to listen to young people with lived experience, and to make sure that children in care receive the same support, opportunities, and love that we expect for our own children.”