Engage: Relationships matter – The importance of consistent relationships for care leavers

When young people leave care, the transition can be fraught with difficulties which can continue well into adulthood, and even for life.

The continuity of consistent relationships throughout a young person’s care experience is important, and young people say they would benefit from positive, nurturing relationships. However, there can be many barriers to developing and maintaining these. So, we need to find ways to improve support for young people who are leaving care so they can lead the lives they aspire to.

In 2014-15 IRISS ran a project, ‘relationships matter’, which recognised the value of positive relationships between workers and young people.  The project’s main aims were to demonstrate how relationships can be positively supported during times of transition; develop ideas; and put these into practice.

We collated evidence and personal stories which are on the project website [http://blogs.iriss.org.uk/relationships-matter]. We also ran a ‘design jam’ (inspired by the Global Service Jam model: [http://planet.globalservicejam.org/faq] to support workers and young people to challenge the barriers which prevent positive relationships.

We selected five teams (comprising workers and young people) to attend the JAM: Hot Chocolate, Care Visions, Falkirk Council, Includem and Kibble. Participants and facilitators tweeted throughout the day. [http://blogs.iriss.org.uk/relationships-matter/2015/01/16/story]  By the end of the day, each team had developed a prototype idea. Each team committed to piloting its idea and also wanted to continue to meet to support one another in this.

The ideas and the barriers discussed are at http://blogs.iriss.org.uk/relationships-matter/jam  A theme emerging from this process was for 2015 to be ‘the year of love’, with an emphasis on supporting workers and young people in and leaving care to build positive relationships.

In March 2015 we presented this at a workshop at the PAS conference, Creating Loving Relationships [http://blogs.iriss.org.uk/innovate/2015/04/01/creating-loving-relationships-parenting-across-scotland-2015-conference], supported by colleagues from youth project, Hot Chocolate, [www.hotchocolate.org.uk] which had participated in the JAM. We discussed the relationships matter project and what Hot Chocolate would be doing in 2015 to champion loving relationships with the young people it works with.

IRISS will continue to support this work. Check out the website for updates: http://blogs.iriss.org.uk/relationships-matter; sign up to the IRISS newsletter at: www.iriss.org.uk/mailing-list; and follow #RelationshipsMatter on Twitter.

By Dr Fiona Munro is Project Manager – Innovation and Improvement at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Science (IRISS). Fiona is a passionate researcher and designer inspired and driven by the role person-centred approaches have in understanding and improving the care, health and wellbeing of people of all ages and backgrounds.

You can follow Fiona on Twitter @fkmunro, or reach her by email here: [email protected]