The views, experiences and aspirations of care experienced children and young people

McAuley, Colette and Bunting, Lisa (2005) The views, experiences and aspirations of care experienced children and young people , Belfast, Ireland. Voice of Young People in Care (VOYPIC)

Abstract

Chapter 1 Introduction Over the past 5 year VOYPIC have been carrying out consultations with looked after young people across Northern Ireland on matters which affect their daily lives. The results of each of these individual consultations have been available to the commissioners and have informed the work of VOYPIC staff. However a considerable busy of work has been completes on a range of issues of direct relevance to those charged with developing child care policy and practice.
As part of the consultative process for the Strategic framework for Children in Need and their Families, the DHSSPSNI recognised the value of the work already undertaken by VOYPIC. They requested a detailed summary of all the individual consultations but also an overview of the core messages.
Chapter 2 Looked After Children in Northern Ireland A wide range of official statistics are available on looked after children in Northern Ireland. These highlight that the numbers of looked after children in Northern Ireland have remained relatively stable over time, that are majority are aged 5 and over and that almost two thirds are placed in foster care. Equally, they also show that children looked after in Northern Ireland are much more likely to have a statement of educational need, be expelled or suspended from school, have lower levels of educational attainment or have a police caution pr conviction than the general Northern Ireland child population,. Similarly, care leavers are much more likely to leave school with no qualifications than all school leavers in NI, less likely to be in education and more likely to be unemployed or economically inactive.
Differences were also apparent between the experiences of looked after children and young people in England and Northern Ireland. Children in care in England were likely to be slightly older than those in Northern Ireland and greater numbers were placed in foster care than in Northern Ireland. In England more looked after children had statements of special educational needs and greater numbers remained in full time education at the end of year 12. Slightly greater numbers of children looked after in Northern Ireland were expelled or cautioned or convicted. In terms of educational achievement, performance at GCSE level was similar. Equally the qualifications obtained by care leavers tended to be similar although young people in Northern Ireland achieved more in terms of GCSES A*-C and slightly lower numbers left school with no qualifications than in England.
The recent publications based on the OC3 collection starkly presents the different pathways that care leavers take in comparison to their peers in the general population, particularly in terms of employment and early parenthood.
Overall, the OC collections are a significant step forward in providing information. As they continue to be collected and disseminated, we are beginning to build up a more comprehensive picture of the life paths of looked after children in Northern Ireland. The next step is to use that information in the learning and delivery of services to improve outcomes for these children. The absence of information on the prevalence of mental health disorders both in the general child and adolescent population in Northern Ireland as well as in relation to looked after children, however, leaves a significant gap I our understanding of the needs of the latter relative to the general population and in comparison to their peers in the rest of the UK.
Chapter 3 Children’s Rights The issues of children’s rights is on which has achieved increasing prominence in recent years with key developments such as the appointment of a Commissioner for Children and Young People and the development of the OFMDFM ‘Strategy for Children &Young People.’ Whilst it is not yet clear to what extent the OFMDFM strategy will be vehicle for children’s rights or focus on looked after children, the work of the Commissioner has highlighted a range of issues which currently impact on the rights of looked after children in Northern Ireland. These include: increased access to advocacy services; increased placement choice; access to specialist services; flexible contact with family members, in particular siblings; improved educational achievement and health assessments. Thus despite these developments, it would appear that Northern Ireland is still some way off a full realisation of the rights of children and young people who are looked after.
Chapter 4 Participatory Research with Children and Young People This chapter looks at the concept of Participatory research with children and young people; the difference between consultation and participation. Ways of working with young people.
Chapter 5 Voice of Young People in Care This chapters looks at VOYPIC as a whole;- background, mission. Vision, outcomes, an overview of their programmes and the future.
Chapter 6 Overview of VOYPIC’S Projects and Chapter 7 Projects Summaries These contains a summary of projects and presentation/ consultations carried out by VOYPIC in 2002/05 and also looks at detailed information about 18 projects carried out by VOYPIC. A brief overview of the projects characteristics are provided in chapter 6 and in chapter 7 project focuses in the children and young people’s involvement and the key messages arising form the project.
Chapter 8 Key Themes The initial key lesion has been young people’ readiness to participate and the richness of the insights they have provided into their experience of care.
Using care experienced young people to carry out the consultations has provided effective in obtaining the views of looked after young people.
It was apparent that much of what the young people want is respect for their rights. More specifically: they want
• To be consulted; to have a say; to be kept informed; to be involved in a meaningful way in decisions about their lives • To have some private space in foster and residential homes • To fell safe in their home, to feel wanted by their foster carers, to get placements which meet their needs and placements where they can stay longer-term • Not to be identified in school as looked after either by teachers or pupils; to b treated as any other pupil in school by teachers; to have an opportunity to have school stability • To have their personal and birth family details kept confidential or to be shared on a need to know basis; to be kept informed abut what is happening to their birth family; not to have their birth family maligned • To have social worker who will be with them long-term; do activities with them and spend time with them, apart from when they are in crisis • To have someone to talk to about their feelings (e.g. about moves in care and school, contact with birth families and significant others, concerns and worries).
Many of these issues touch upon wider issues within the care system. The matching of a young person’s needs with the most appropriate foster or residential home depends on placement choice which has been a major challenge for some time (McAuley, 2000). The difficulties posed in recruiting and retaining long term foster carers has been matched with little progress on the investment and reshaping of residential services envisaged by the Children Matter report (DHSS/SSNI, 1998). Yet the voices of these young people remind us of the importance of finding stable, loving homes where they can develop their potential.
For many years, research has indicated that the educational attainments of young people in care are closely associated with their progress as adults (Stein, 1994; Broad, 1998). Yet Looked After Children continue to have much poorer educational outcomes than their school peers (Goddard, 2000). In Northern Ireland, a recent survey indicated that care leavers are ten times more likely than school leavers in general (51% compared to 5%) to leave without gaining any qualifications at all (Mooney et al. 2004b).
Frequent moves of school as a result of placement breakdowns are more than likely to contribute to this. The young people shared how stressed they felt at times by moving school, the difference between schools and the work, and the need to establish a whole new set of friends. Earlier research has reported similar findings (McAuley, 1996). Sometimes the move of school was due to school exclusion. The young people consulted thought that school was very important in terms of future life chances and that therefore it was very important that they should be in school. There was a sense, though, that this realisation sometimes came late in their school career, largely due to other preoccupations. Where carers and staff spent time with them on their homework and school-related work, this was appreciated by the young people. The desire to be treated as any other pupil in the school setting was particularly strong. They did not want teachers being aware of their personal and birth family history as it led to them being treated differently and their experience was that this information was not treated confidentially. Where the school needed to know, limited information to be a dedicated teacher seemed to the best solution. If teachers needed to attend reviews, the young people were unhappy about their personal and family details being shared with them. However, they particular did not want other pupils to become aware as it led to bullying. It was in that context that they wanted permissions for school, trips, parents’ nights etc. to be dealt with in a manner which did not expose them as being looked after.
The emotional and mental well-being of these young people seemed to receive little attention. /there was a strong sense of these young people struggling with huge issues abut their early life and their relationship with birth family members on their own. In general, children looked after long term have not come into care for trivial reasons (Sinclair, 2005). We know that most children currently looked after have experienced neglect and/or abuse prior to coming into care. The predominant reason for children entering care in NI is neglect associated with the alcohol addiction of one or both parents. Many children have experienced physical and emotional abuse and some have been the victims of sexual abuse. Some have experienced severe rejection. These are all issues which are likely to have repercussions for the emotional and mental health of the young people. In these consultations we got glimpses of the sense of loneliness, isolation and depression experienced by some of them. At the extreme end of the spectrum, young people in care have attempted self-harm. The young people directly connected their extreme behaviour at times with these unresolved feelings. Yet the response to their behaviour appears to be largely behaviour management, A recent survey in England estimated that between 45% of looked after children aged 5-15 years had a psychiatric disorder, making them 4 to 5 times more likely to have a mental disorder than children in the general (Meitzer et al., 2003). As yet, no such survey has been carried out in NI. However, a recent small study would suggest that the prevalence of mental health problems in Looked After Children here may be equally high (Teggart and Menary, 2005). A recently completed study of care experienced young people in NI found that some of the more troubled young people identified the need for therapeutic provision (McAuley, 2005; 2006). A range of therapeutic facilities, specifically designed to meet the needs of Looked After Children, may well be needed.
Relationships with their birth family are a core concern to these young people. No matter what else is happening in their lives, most looked after children need to know about their birth family. In Northern Ireland, we have very few isolated children in care,. Most have birth families living reasonably near and have at least some contact with part of that family. many have siblings also in care but living in different homes. Generally, they have a strong sense of family identity particularly if they came into long term later in childhood.
These young people need to know how their family are and what is happening to them. Where information is not forthcoming, they worry about their siblings and their parents. In more extreme situations, it may affect their emotional and mental well-being.
Relationships with their social workers are viewed as really important by the young people. The young people wanted to develop a long term relationship with a social worker. They wanted someone to spend time with them and get to know them as individuals. Constant changes of social worker and having social workers who were constantly stressed precluded the development of such meaningful relationships based upon trust. There was a strong sense of a lack of direct work with the young people where they could discuss how they were feeling about significant events in their lives. For the most troubled (often also the most isolated) young people, social workers were very significant people on whom they depended.
The need for young people to feel safe at home and school was a recurrent theme. They were concerned about bullying in both settings. It was a particular concern for young people in residential care. They were keen to see policies developed to prevent it and staff to receive awareness training. At school, the identification of being b other students. No wonder, then, that they wanted minimal information on their personal/life family situation to be shared with school staff in case it was discovered by the pupils. The fear of such knowledge becoming available was a serious concern for many young people.
Young people were generally unhappy about the nature of their involvement in LAC reviews. They felt that they focused on the negatives about them with little attention to their positive attributes and progress made. The large number of people involved, many of whom they did not know, made attendance stressful and often led to them feeling uncomfortable about speaking. They indicated also that they often did not have the opportunity to discuss their feelings about major issues prior to these meetings. They were particularly unhappy about a wide group of people being made aware of their personal and family details. All of the responses suggested that the young people may well have low self-esteem which would mean that such meetings are likely to prove threatening rather than helpful. A more constructive approach to involving young people in decisions affecting their lives seems called for.
Overall, what came across was a picture of a care system deeply challenged by lack of placements and high social work staff turnover. Some of the issues raised simply required some rethinking or a more sensitive approach by social workers or their managers. Others need investment of time and finance. The value of this body of consultative work is that it highlights the shortcomings of the care system through detailing the direct experiences of the children and young people who are at its heart.

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