Care Journeys Project Acorn: what’s next and recommendations for reducing loneliness at scale [Part 3]

Taking into consideration what we learned in Project Acorn cycle 01, outlined in post 01 and post 02, this is the plan for where we’re headed in Project Acorn cycle 02.

We’ll be testing out a rolling social action programme for care-experienced young people

Social action is people coming together to tackle an issue, support other people, or improve their local area.

How will the programme work?

• Care Journeys Plymouth will run regular 6-week Acorn social action groups over the next 18 months. The rolling nature of the programme will make it easier for professionals to refer young people and for young people to give it a go after building up confidence with 1–2–1 support.
• A group of up to 10 care-experienced young people will co-design a social action to undertake in Plymouth. This could look like putting on an event for a cause they care about, changing something in their local area or campaigning to raise awareness about an issue that matters to them. The social action doesn’t need to be related to the care system — it’s completely determined by each group of young people. Through this approach we hope the programme provides an opportunity for care-experienced young people to develop friendships, build their networks and learn new skills by working on something that matters to them.
• The social actions will create opportunities for a wider group of community members, professionals and young people to engage. Alongside the Care Journeys team and Plymouth City Council Professionals we will be looking to engage local businesses and community members to support social action to take place. This may be through providing feedback or advice on ideas through to taking part in the social action activity itself. The purpose is to extend young people’s networks and provide clear ways for the broader community to support what matters to them.
• We will use the ‘easing in model’ and a weekend residential to create strong bonds and build trust at the beginning of the programme. This model has proved effective in cycle 01 and across other Care Journeys programmes.
• The programme will be split into two age groupings; 14–18 and 18–24 year olds in order to ensure appropriate safeguarding measures are in place.

We’ll post updates on the Care Journeys Instagram page: @plymcarejourneys

Three recommendations from Care Journeys practitioners to make care a place where connection happens

Recommendation 01: Pilot new ways to make it easier for care-experienced young people to find out about and shape opportunities for them

We need to get more creative with how care-experienced young people find out about opportunities that might benefit them. Right now the most common way opportunities are shared with young people in Plymouth is through their worker, this could be via text message, email or face-to-face. If their relationship with their worker breaks down or they never engaged to begin with they may have no idea about what’s available to them.

Here are some questions to consider:

• How can we create more immediate feedback loops for young people to actively have a voice in shaping what opportunities are available? An example: ProCyrumu used Instagram Polling to co-create their brand with young people, they had over 4000 engaging
• How can we take a more systems-led approach to referrals? For example, exploring how opportunities that are available might be part of social prescribing
• How can we ensure young people are given inclusive, safe ways to find out about opportunities online? For example, could different age group in care be opted into an opportunities for you broadcast that’s like an exclusive opportunities club for care-experienced young people?

Recommendation 02: Invest in 21st century youth centres so that young people can find community

Four out of five People I Tolerate group participants we spoke to told us they would be home, alone in their bedrooms if they weren’t here with us*.

“Being depressed in my room or talking to my friends, being stressed.” — People I Tolerate participant

“Oh, just be in bed until a certain time and then I’ll be in my room. That’s it.” — People I Tolerate Participant

Alongside good, safe housing options like The National House Project, young people and professionals alike need bricks and mortar spaces that are conducive to relationship building. A 70% cut in youth services over the past decade has seen the closure of at least 763 youth centres across the UK across the UK according to UNISON.

“We need spaces where you feel more you as professionals” — Helen Fox, Personal Advisor at Plymouth City Council

Young people friendly spaces — with wifi, chill out areas and an open kitchen — have a huge impact on professionals too. They encourage everyone to be themselves which can help balance out power dynamics.

This recommendation isn’t surprising and it’s not new but it is fundamental to reducing loneliness and social isolation amongst care-experienced young people.

Recommendation 03: Invest in Links — a service model dedicated to preventing children in care from being lonely

As much as it’s important to create trusting relationships with professionals, young people need informal networks of support that can be consistent in their lives.

“We know that their social workers change and that’s just the very nature of the profession. But when they change social workers, schools and their placement changes, there’s nothing consistent in their life.” Carin Laird, Experienced Youth Worker, Care Journeys

But there is no one ‘silver bullet’ solution to creating connections, or links.

“Some young people like group work…others need mentoring or independent visiting…some young people need that connection to kin and people from their family networks…” — Rob Harrison, Children’s services manager, Plymouth

So the aim of Links is to put all of the integrated approaches mentioned above under one umbrella for 8–25 year olds with the very clear ambition that no care-experienced young person in Plymouth should be saying that they experienced loneliness in care.

We are currently working with Plymouth City Council to implement the Links model. Please contact plymouthcarejourneys@barnardos.org.uk if you’d like to hear more about it.

Special thanks to the care-experienced co-producers in the Project Acorn team — you know who you are ;), the young people who came to People I Tolerate, Carin Laird, Helen Fox and Rob Harrison.

• We saw a correlation with young people who felt less happy in their residential care placements wanting to spend more time in the Care Journeys space because they felt comfortable there.

Project Acorn is featured in a 3-part episode series called ‘Making Change’ on Barnardo’s Heard but not Seen podcast. Here’s the first episode on Spotify and you can also find it on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen.