Understanding the experiences of young people as they ‘leave care’: part three
In the previous two blog posts, I’ve introduced the aims of our research and what we’ve found.
Here I’ll explain how we worked in collaboration with young people and Plymouth City Council to agree an area of focus, and what we learnt in discovery part two.
How research helped to inform decision-making
The potential scope for which problem we chose to tackle was huge, it ranged from debt to loneliness to re-thinking how Personal Advisors work with young people.
At the end of our first phase of research, we’d identified eight possible areas for further exploration in our second phase of discovery:
- Removing uncertainty for young people approaching 18 and leaving care;
- Re-imagining how young people learn about and prepare for independence;
- Re-focusing the role of the Personal Advisor;
- Tackling debt amongst care leavers;
- Tackling loneliness and isolation amongst care leavers living alone;
- Re-imagining what moving in and creating a home looks like for care leavers;
- Creating a safety net for young people to rely on;
- Growing the imagination, ambition and networks of care leavers.
Before making a decision, we did a few things that would help us to figure out which should be the priority. This was done in collaboration with our partners and young people.
Barnardo’s Children In and Leaving Care Core Priority Programme, set out in our Corporate Strategy, invests in transforming our services in a vital area for young people moving towards adulthood.
Official data, referenced in our Impact Report, shows that overall, care leavers are still much less likely than their non-care experienced peers to be in education, employment or training, more likely to be involved in the youth justice system, experience mental health and emotional challenges, or experience homelessness and social isolation.
Every year, around 10,000 young people leave the care system, and in total, there are over 40,000 care leavers aged 17–21 in the UK.
Firstly, we got clear about what ‘good’ would look like for Barnardo’s
If an area seemed to ‘score’ highly against the following criteria, it was a strong contender for further research:
- It contributes to our ambition, helping those leaving care to be in a positive destination;
- Research and testing is feasible — we would have access to the different people and organisations connected to this problem, and sufficient influence over our ability to test;
- We could rapidly test and learn from ideas — if it felt like something would require a longer period of time (years not months) to know if we were having an impact, perhaps a different design approach would be needed;
- It could present partnership opportunities for Barnardo’s.
Secondly, we checked our findings with young people and asked them to prioritise the areas based on their personal experience
This meant we were continuing to collaborate with young people and involve them in our decision-making, not just the research.
Finally, we discussed the options with our local authority partner, including representatives from Children’s Social Care and Commissioning.
This helped us take into consideration whether there was any existing or planned work in place to tackle any of the areas highlighted through the research.
Possible areas of interest for discovery part two
What emerged following this process, was that there were four areas which we felt we either needed to prioritise or de-prioritise:
- Refocusing the role of the Personal Advisor
PA’s play such a huge part in the journey young people go through as they leave care, we all felt that if we could re-think what the role looked like, we would start to see significant impact on the experiences of young people. The local authority had begun work in the area already so the decision was made to de-prioritise this area for now.
2. Tackling debt amongst care leavers
This was a very specific but significant problem amongst many of those we had met. Debt meant lots of young people were struggling to pay bills and rent and with no financial safety net in place, their accommodation was coming under threat. However, on reflection, this was an area that had less crossover with the kinds of expertise we had at Barnardo’s, so was also de-prioritised.
3. Reimagining what moving in and creating a home looks like for care leavers
Although this was an area of focus that came through in the research, young people did not prioritise this, they simply felt other areas would have more of an impact on their lives and this is something we took into consideration when we decided to de-prioritise this third area.
4. Tackling loneliness and isolation amongst care leavers living alone
Loneliness and isolation was prioritised by the young people we met, it is a consistent finding across other research with care leavers, and was high on the agenda for the local authority. We felt this was an opportunity to look at more deeply, a complex social issue well suited to the approach of design.
For those areas we de-prioritised, we simply acknowledge them on our ‘long list’ of things to revisit later. As with any large and complex problem, there is no single aspect or solution and it must be broken down to begin working at a manageable scale.
Discovery part two:
Tackling loneliness and social isolation amongst care leavers
Between July — October 2019, we’ve been taking an in depth look into the triggers, impact and coping mechanisms of care-experienced young people dealing with loneliness and/or social isolation.
We read up on what the existing literature has to say about this problem. Unsurprisingly, a lot of it focuses on loneliness and isolation amongst our elderly population, however we did find some studies into youth loneliness and isolation.
Building on existing research, we wanted to understand what this problem looks like locally, and specifically for care-experienced young people.
We decided to focus on those that were living independently as we felt we were most likely to find young people experiencing loneliness and isolation if they were no longer living with with the support of caregiving adults.
Based on those young people we met, we found six distinct things that are contributing to loneliness and social isolation. They are:
Limited networks by the time of leaving care — By the time young people leave care at 18, for some, their social and support networks have been significantly disrupted as a result of their experiences in care. This can happen from the moment of coming into care, if they are moved whilst in care and when they leave care.
It prevents them from maintaining existing relationships and forming new relationships if they feel they are going to continue to move.
This can result in small and homogenous social networks at the point of leaving care when they are expected to flourish and become independent.
Few opportunities to meet people — Especially for those not engaging in something meaningful that brings them into contact with others (work, study, training, hobbies etc.), there are very few opportunities for young people to meet others and expand their social networks.
In addition, many young people, after years of experiencing consistent disruption and breakdowns in relationships, place greater value on self-protection (keeping myself to myself) rather than making new friends.
Living on my own — Lots of young people we spoke to found it helpful living with others or would reach out to other people when they were feeling lonely or isolated. When young people leave care, they are offered shared accommodation, however many choose to live on their own and then struggle to manage this. A balance is important here; between the desire for independence and the skills and ability to manage the reality of this.
A poor experience of moving and settling in — The young people we spoke to found the transition into living independently a significant trigger for loneliness and social isolation. This transition is made up of lots of different steps and at each of these steps, young people are experiencing things which undermine the ambition of preparing young people for independence in all that entails. These things have a cumulative effect on whether young people are feeling well, safe and settled enabling them to invest in relationships.
A lack of daily structure and sense of purpose — Almost all of the young people we spoke to were not in employment, education or training and therefore did not have a lot of structure to their day which meant they often felt bored. In addition, over half of the young people we spoke to appeared to or told us they did not have a sense of purpose or direction in their lives.
Without either structure or sense of purpose, young people are at risk of becoming more isolated and are not exposed to new experiences or other people as they may be if they were participating in something meaningful (be that employment, education, training, volunteering, an interest group etc.).
Unhealthy relationships — Nearly all of the young people we met described relationships with friends or partners that made them feel anxious, unhappy or scared. Some of these relationships are ongoing as these people play such a large part in their lives and their support network. These kinds of relationships can either trigger isolation and feelings of loneliness, or they can be sought out as a result of feeling isolated and lonely.
Reflecting on the approach
As we move into the next stage of design, it’s only now possible to see how much work was needed to narrow the focus of the problem in order to begin imagining what could possibly help to make a difference.
At the start of this process, almost a year ago, the challenge was to take a design-led approach to our problem, one which was so huge and complex, it was hard to see where to begin — by the time care-experienced people are aged 19 to 21, they’re much less likely (compared to their non-care experienced peers) to be in a ‘positive destination’ — doing something meaningful during their days that means they can look forward with hope and purpose.
We needed to find a way of breaking this down and begin understanding what was causing this problem. We knew the problem would be multi-faceted, a product of a system that is not working. It would span the changing labour market, poor attainment levels at school and college, caseloads of overworked professionals, a lack of suitable housing, enormous waiting lists for mental health support and so much more.
The last twelve months have been a process of ‘narrowing’ — committing to what we learn as the focus becomes narrower, letting the research guide us and ensuring we’re working in collaboration with young people all the way.
This research has, at times felt frustratingly slow as we continue to learn and document, holding back from ideas. As a designer, I’ve personally been itching to make and test things, and to start having an impact.
However with such a huge scope, the only sensible way of making progress is to begin to break things down into more manageable areas of focus.
With six years ahead of us (and this is only the beginning), I’m excited to see how a design approach can help us navigate the murky waters of systems change as we chip away at the problem from all angles.
We’ll soon be sharing the next chapter of this story as we begin to co-design, prototype and test ideas — finally!
Amy is a service designer in the Barnardo’s Digital & Technology team. To get the latest updates from the Barnardo’s Digital & Technology team, subscribe to blog.barnar.do on Medium, and follow #FutureBarnardos on Twitter.
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