My name is Nicki, and I have been employed with Care Visions for 4 years. I have recently been appointed as Service Manager for Care Visions new and exciting project, Why Not?
Why Not? was developed in recognition that everyone needs consistent and reliable relationships in their lives. Why Not? models its practice on a fantastic service in New York called You Gotta Believe. This service believes every young person is entitled to a family and it supports families to adopt young people aging out of foster care. Why Not has similar goals – to provide young people with the opportunity to be morally adopted by their care givers providing them with a sense of belonging.
I have a particular interest in young people aging out of care and how we can make this a positive and successful transition for them. Evidence indicates that young people who are aging out of care are faced with more challenges and disadvantages than their peers who remain at home. This includes a heightened risk of homelessness, poor mental health, lack of education, and increased criminality. It has been highlighted in the Staying Put document that continued positive relationships between young people and their significant care givers can be the key to a successful transition into independent living. As a result, when the opportunity arose for me to be part of Why Not? I was extremely excited about this. I feel strongly and passionately about the importance of relationships being continued for young people and their care givers.
Young people who are moving on have often built networks in the area they have been accommodated. However, often they find themselves moved on to independent living in other areas, where they have no support network, and this isolates the young people who most often already have additional vulnerabilities. Young people who are included in their communities, have established relationships and have better education, training and employment opportunities will have greater resilience and ultimately are more likely to overcome the adversities they have faced. When it comes time for young people to move on, they are often under-prepared for this huge transition. On average in the UK young people leave home aged 25. This is in comparison to young people leaving care between 16 – 18 years, when it is unlikely that anyone of that age would be able to demonstrate ‘their readiness’ to live independently. Despite residential staff working hard to prepare young people on practical tasks such as budgeting and household chores, there are limitations of what can be done emotionally to prepare for the task of a young teenager living on their own.
The Making not Breaking (2013) enquiry states “The weight of evidence, from all quarters, convinces us that the relationships with people who care for and about children are the golden thread in children’s lives…” and that “unless in exceptional circumstances….planning should focus on ensuring continuity of key valued relationships for the child”. Despite this, there is much taboo surrounding residential care staff and foster carers maintaining relationships with young people who have moved on from their care, or indeed the carer has moved on. A key reason for the significant margins in the outcomes for previously looked after children and those who have lived at home may therefore be the lack of continued, long lasting and meaningful relationships. Unlike their peers looked after children often do not have a secure base in which to return or the on-going support of family or friends.
I believe that only by educating, challenging current practices and opening minds will young people’s experience of leaving care be improved and will the gap between them and their peers who have remained at home be narrowed and ultimately eliminated.