Department for Educations funds expansion of trailblazing initiative to build support networks for children in care
Children in care are often moved around within the system, which can disrupt and break personal relationships, such as those with siblings, relatives, school friends, teachers or others who might offer essential support.
Photo by Annie Spratt
There are currently more than 100,000 children in the care system across the UK. According to the Children’s Commissioner for England, 37% of children in care who have siblings are separated from them. Become – the national charity for children in care and for care leavers – says that, on average, children in care are placed more than 18 miles away from home, making it difficult to maintain such relationships.
The impact of this has been long understood. More than a decade ago, the 2013 Care Inquiry conducted by eight voluntary organisations across the UK, concluded that the greatest failing of the care system was that it too often breaks rather than builds such relationships.
The Lifelong Links initiative, developed by charity Family Rights Group in partnership with young people with experience of care, aims to mend and build on those important relationships. The work has already had a significant impact. In recognition of this success, the initiative had now been expanded, with the initial 11 local authorities receiving government funding expanded to 23.
The Lifelong Links programme is delivered by independent, trained coordinators assigned to a child in care to find out who is important to them and who they want to meet or be back in touch with. With the young person’s agreement and assistance, and using research skills and detective work, the coordinator works to bring together a network of that will safely support the child, and develop a plan to ensure these relationships continue to grow.
Independent evaluation of the programme so far found that 78% of children who take part in the programme report an improved sense of identity, and that mental health and well-being are seen to improve over time. Participants are also nearly twice as likely to have stability in their living arrangements than their peers: 74% remain in their foster care or children’s home after Lifelong Links compared with 41% of a comparator group.
What’s more, participation corelates with reduced risk of a young person becoming homeless by 10%, according to research conducted by the Policy Institute at King’s College London. (The charity Crisis reports that 25% of all homeless people are care experienced.)
There are also clear economic benefits to being proactive and ensuring issues are less likely to exacerbate. Recent evaluation shows that by supporting 44 young people through the Lifelong Links initiative, Hertfordshire County Council saved more than £800,000.
Indeed, Isabelle Trowler CBE, the government’s Chief Worker for Children and Families, cites Lifelong Links as ‘one of the most successful innovations’ in children’s services in recent years.
The 11 local authorities already in receipt of government funding for Lifelong Links are: Bath & North East Somerset Council; Birmingham Children’s Trust (on behalf of Birmingham City Council); Coventry City Council; Darlington Borough Council; Devon County Council; Hertfordshire County Council; Kensington & Chelsea Royal Borough Council and Westminster City Council (bi-borough); Oxfordshire County Council; Portsmouth City Council; Wandsworth Borough Council; and Warwickshire County Council.
These are now being joined by 12 more local authorities: Barking and Dagenham Council; Brighton & Hove City Council; Durham County Council; Gateshead Council; Hammersmith & Fulham Council; Islington Council; Salford City Council; Southwark Council; Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council; Stoke-on-Trent City Council; Warrington Borough Council; Wiltshire County Council.
Cathy Ashley, Chief Executive of the Family Rights Group, says: ‘The 2022 independent review of children’s social care said that by 2024 at the latest, all local authorities should have implemented “skilled family finding support equivalent to, or exceeding, the work of Lifelong Links”, so no young person should leave care without at least two loving relationships. Today’s announcement is an important step in the right direction, taking the total number of English local authorities offering Lifelong Links to 36. But it still leaves young people in the care system in three quarters of English councils denied the opportunity to benefit. Our Build Not Break campaign is calling on the new Government to ensure it is available to all children and young people in the care system and care leavers – both in England and across the UK.
‘Lifelong Links is transforming lives for children in care. It is increasing the number of people they can turn to, improving their mental health and sense of identity, and reducing the chance of becoming homeless. These and other impacts reduce councils’ social care costs by bringing down the demands on social care teams, meaning that the programme more than pays for itself.’
Matt Clayton, Strategic Lead – Children in Care, Children with Disabilities and Care Leavers, Coventry City Council, adds: ‘Far too often the care system damages or breaks relationships instead of repairing or maintaining them. Lifelong Links allows for something really different where children and young people in care are supported to build a loving network of support which will remain with them throughout adulthood. We all know that relationships matter and Lifelong Links allows the most important relationships for children and young people to be nurtured and supported. Lifelong Links is one of the most transformative developments to have taken place within the care system and really allows those young people leaving care to do so in a much more supportive way.’
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