In
2001, The Leaving Care Act (2000) came into force. It stipulated that local authorities (LAs) have a duty to assess and meet the needs of young
people aged 16 and 17 who are in care or care leavers. It also set out that
every eligible young person in care should receive a comprehensive pathway plan
when they turn 16. The Act stipulates that each young person covered by the act will have
a personal adviser.
The Personal Adviser will be involved
in:
·
Providing advice and support
·
Drawing up the pathway plan and
ensuring it addresses any changing needs
·
Keeping in touch with the young person
·
Co-ordinating services, linking in with
other agencies
However, despite the fact that
‘the role of family and social relationships’
and ‘emotional and behavioural support’ are both in the pathway plan,
the focus remains on offering financial and practical support, with elements
such as accommodation, education and training. Whilst these are clearly vital
areas in supporting young people to live independently, there remains a gap in
the offering of emotional support, which is vital so that young people are
prepared not only for independence,
but interdependence. Interdependent
living occurs when an individual depends upon others in areas in which he/she
lacks the capacity to function on his/her own. Robson (2008: 165) found
that of the leaving care professionals and personal advisers he interviewed, 71 per cent felt there was insufficient attention
paid to emotional support for young care leavers.
The Gap in research:
The focus both of research and
legislation for care leavers tends to be on the practical issues highlighted
above.
Within the research that
exists on emotional support, there is much to highlight this support as being
critical for care leavers, spanning UK, USA and Romania (Massinga & Pecora,
2004; Stein, 2005; Duncalf, 2010; Dima, 2011), yet there tends to be very
little research specifically looking to understand the entire support network.
When young people leave care, it is vital they have an entire support network
in order to develop the interdependence mentioned earlier. This support network
might not be limited to just one relationship but might be a mixture of
relationships; whether it be friends, family, informal mentors or
professionals.
The research that comes
closest is conducted by Biehal et al (1995), over 17 years ago and before the
introduction of the Leaving Care Act 2000, and the role of the Personal
Adviser. Biehal et al (1995) found that very few professionals attempted to
work with young people on widening their support network and less than 1/3
worked with them on family issues.
There has also been research
into specific relationships, such as Marsh and Peel (1999) looking at the role
of the extended family, Wade (2008) focusing on the relationships with birth
parents and foster carers, Florris (2002) looking at support groups and
Cathcart (2002) at mentoring. However there appears to be a gap in
understanding the support network in its entirety as viewed by the care leaver.
It is particularly important to understand this from the care leaver’s point of
view. This is partly because research has shown that professionals choice of
‘people important to the young person’ are often not the same as those that are
chosen by the young person themselves. In addition, it might help professionals
to understand better ways of engaging with young people to offer support, if
perhaps the current process is not working as well as it could be. This might
be in relationship to the young person’s early experience with support or lack
of support and their need to form their own coping strategies.
Objectives:
The objectives for this research will be
to understand:
·
How important care leavers
believe an ‘emotional support’ network to be
·
Who is in their network to
give them this ‘emotional support’
·
How their support network was
developed / How much help they got from their social worker/personal adviser to
develop this support network
·
Whether they feel support is
in place both for everyday emotional needs and for crisis situations
·
What (if anything) they
believe can be done to further help them develop their network
Already interesting to hear the comments of many tweeters, thank you to those who have found similar gaps in their own experience of practice.
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