Care-experienced People Research Articles

The Interpersonal-Psychological theory of suicide in the context of (leaving) care: An empirical exploration of suicidal ideation among care-experienced young adults

People who lived in foster or residential care have a higher risk of suicidal ideation and behavior compared to those without care experience. However, most previous research has neglected applying suicide theories to help understand this risk. This paper presents findings from a cross-national study using the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide (IPTS) to explore why care-experienced people, especially those leaving care, are more likely to have suicidal thoughts. The findings show associations between the IPTS factors, perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, and suicidal ideation among care-experienced young adults from England and Germany. This study contributes to helping develop necessary suicide prevention strategies across national care systems.

The Perceived Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health and Well-being of Care-Experienced People

Abstract The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on care-experienced people has been the subject of research, but important gaps remain in our understanding of how care-experienced people felt their mental health and well-being were affected by the pandemic. Care-experienced adults from across the UK were invited to complete a survey and submit a diary during the first lockdown. Responses were received from 140 people, aged eighteen to sixty-nine years. Most respondents reported that their mental health deteriorated due to the pandemic and lockdown. However, a substantial minority thought that either there had been no change or the lockdown had helped them make positive improvements. Improvements were attributed to stable housing and employment, support from services and transferable skills they had learnt in care. A minority of respondents referred to their care status in their diaries. Most diarists presented their experiences as being common to other, non-care-experienced, people. This article showcases the resilience of many care-experienced people, including some who made explicit reference to the benefits of coping strategies developed while in care. The findings of this study reveal that when provided with the right support, the care system can assist people to develop important life skills.

‘Rocky road’ & ‘brick walls’ – Multiple meanings of resilience in a social work context through the lens of critical realist Informed grounded theory

This study seeks to build an explanation of the multiple meanings of resilience in a social work context, centralising the interplay between human agency (meaning-making, motivations and intentionality) and social structures (enduring patterns, social rules, norms and laws). Specifically, this research provides insight into how care-experienced people (aged 17–50 years old) and social workers and affiliated practitioners in England make sense of ‘resilience’ and ‘resilient’ behaviours. Critical realist informed grounded theory (CRGT) provides unique opportunities here, with critical realist’s primacy of ontology as the starting point and grounded theory providing the epistemological force, contextualising research and imbedding this more firmly into practice. Drawing on the four stages of retroductive argumentation proposed by Kempster and Parry (2014) and developed by us, we identify a number of key themes, namely, ‘Having/Building an Ability’ – ‘Rocky Road’ and ‘Brick Walls’ – Resilience as Resistance – ‘Compliance’, as well as causal factors impacting upon the themes (such as traumatic life experiences, protective factors, external support systems, political agendas, structure-agency relationships and stigma, discrimination and marginalisation). The research highlights how multiple causal mechanisms, including interpretations of situations by individuals (in this case care-experienced individuals and social workers/affiliated practitioners) interact and generate multiple meaning in relation to process and outcomes of resilience. The research thus provides insight into deeply embedded interpretations of resilience, which should be viewed in light of the stratified non-linear dynamics of embodied experiences, material/institutional forces and social relationships, that co-constitute subjectivity, as well as having an ongoing influence on body–brain systems.

Care experts outline ambitions

Care-experienced people want the Care Review to shape a system that better meets children's needs

Listening to care experienced young people and creating audio-bites for social work education

ABSTRACT It can be challenging to incorporate young people’s voices into social work pedagogy even though service user involvement is an essential part of social work education. Technological advances present new ways to involve service users and overcome barriers to participation. The purpose of this research was to explore service user involvement amongst young people by developing an audio resource for a qualifying social work programme in Scotland. We used a co-production methodology to create eight audio-bites based on interviews with four care-experienced people, aged 14–19, about their involvement with social work. We share key findings from the interviews, about the young people’s involvement with social work and about being ‘subjects’ of statutory recording practices and processes, such as chronologies and Child’s Plans. We discuss how the audio-bites were used in teaching and present feedback from students and lecturers about their use. We argue that the audio-bites promote authentic learning as they depict real life practice situations, and help students to develop listening and reflection skills that will inform their preparation for practice with children and young people.

Towards a human-centred participatory approach to child social care recordkeeping

In 2019, there were over 75,000 children and young people in out-of-home care in England and Wales. Recent estimates suggest that up to half a million British people were in state or voluntary care as children, around 1% of the adult population. While individual experiences vary enormously by time and place, care-experienced people share in common the intensive documentation of their lives by social workers, educators, health professionals and associated practitioners. A complex, fragmented legislative and regulatory framework governs the creation and use of these records at the national level. Under UK law, a ‘care file’ must be retained for at least 75 years, so that a substantial legacy of care data is held across the public, voluntary and private sectors. MIRRA: Memory—Identity—Rights in Records—Access, a participatory research project co-produced with care leavers, investigated recordkeeping practices in child social care from multiple perspectives. Interviews, focus groups and workshops with stakeholders identified critical failings in the creation, use, management and access to care records, which do not account for the needs and capabilities of multiple stakeholders. These failings have a direct impact on the well-being and health of care-experienced people throughout their lives. MIRRA researchers developed a human-centred participatory recordkeeping approach to child social care, which this article describes. The approach combines the participatory continuum model (Rolan in Arch Sci 17(3):195–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-016-9267-7, 2017) and the capabilities approach to social work, rooting child social care recordkeeping in information rights principles. The article makes a contribution to the literature that discusses archival science within a human rights and ethics framework and reflects on trauma-informed practice for information professionals. It also provides guidance on practice improvements for child social care recording.

Child Social-Care Recording and the Information Rights of Care-Experienced People: A Recordkeeping Perspective

Child Social-Care Recording and the Information Rights of Care-Experienced People: A Recordkeeping Perspective