Message to Westminster from care-experienced young people
Better support around mental health is the top ask from care-experienced young people in England.
The message comes from a consultation by A National Voice, the children in care council for England, hosted by children’s rights group Coram Voice.
The findings are based on 325 responses from care-experienced children and young people aged from four to 26 across 45 local authorities.
They were asked to identify the three areas they believe England’s children’s minister Janet Daby should focus on.
Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) said they wanted to see better mental health support. The next most mentioned priority was ensuring professionals listen to them when making decisions about their lives (45 per cent).
Ensuring support is available to build better relationships was the third most important priority (34 per cent) mentioned by the respondents.
Mental health
Responding to the National Voice consultation, one young person said: “Your mental health impacts everything; everyday life, education, just getting up in the morning,”.
Their suggestions included “opt-out rather than opt-in” counselling and therapy and “more and better trauma training for staff, teachers and foster carers”.
According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 45 per cent of children and young people looked after in England have emotional and mental health problems. This compares with ten per cent of five to 15-year-olds in the general population.
Children’s Barnardo’s Neglected Minds report highlighted a similar figure. It also found that 65 per cent of young people identified as having mental health needs were not receiving any statutory service.
Speaking at Fatima Whitbread’s One Voice Summit in April aimed at drawing attention to the needs of care-experienced people, Daby recognised the problem.
She acknowledged that care-experienced young people “are overrepresented in homelessness and rough sleeping and are more likely to experience loneliness and poor emotional health”.
Listen to us when making decisions
Children in care have a right to be involved in decision about their lives but campaigners say this too often is not happening enough.
One respondent to the consultation said: “The decisions made about our lives are often out of our control.
“It creates chaos and fear in young people which lasts a lifetime.”
Support to build better relationships
One respondent to the consultation said: ““When I was first in care I didn't understand or know how to have good/friendly relationships. It would be good to have help learning this.”
Children in care will have already experienced breakdown in familial relationships and the resultant trauma. According to Barnardo’s, 35 per cent of care leavers go on to live in a flat on their own, often away from friends and their community.
One in three care leavers becomes homeless within the first two years of leaving care.
The government’s Staying Close policy providing enhanced support for young people leaving care is being rolled out across local authorities.
England’s Independent Review of Children’s Social Care said it should be a mission to ensure by 2027 that every young person leaves care with at least two loving relationships.
Speaking at the One Voice conference, it’s author Josh McAlistair said: “We need to rewire the care system to establish crowding in and keeping those lifelong loving relations for people leaving care.”
Creative writers
Winners of a creative writing competition for care-experienced young people will be announced at the end of May.
The Coram Voice competition includes poems, short stories and raps on the theme of ‘My voice’.