Mike SteinResearch Professor

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A journey of ideas: presentation

• Setting the contexto Why it is important to explore ideas as well as empirical

studies of young people leaving care

• The presentation will include a discussion of:o Social transitionso Attachment theoryo Participation and children’s rightso Life course perspectiveo Social inclusion, universal and selective serviceso A resilience framework

A journey of ideas: setting the context

• Main body of international research on young people leaving care are descriptive and empirical studies, using qualitative and quantitative data

• Many of these studies are detached from theory:o in terms of setting the context – being transparent about the ideas which have

informed the researcho exploring ideas or concepts o contributing to theory building

• This presentation will explore selected approaches and perspectives - not mutually exclusive; not the only possibilities – e.g. legal and human rights, globalisation

• The presentation will draw upon these publicationso Stein, M. (2006) Young people aging out of care: the poverty of theory, Children

and Youth Services Review, 28o Children and Youth Services Review, 33, 12, 2011, Special Issue, Young People’s

Transitions from Care to Adulthoodo Stein, M. (2012) Young People Leaving Care, Supporting Pathways to Adulthood,

Jessica Kingsley

A journey of ideas: social transitions

• Many care leavers have accelerated and compressed transitions to adulthood

• Cope with major changes, younger and in less time than other young people

• Stages and process of transitiono disengagement – gradual leavingo transition – ‘space out’, exploration, reflection and identity searcho re-integration – settling

• Normative processo increasingly more complexo delayedo more forward and backward movement

• Denied the psychological opportunity to deal with issues over time – which is how most young people cope (Focal Theory)

• Policy and practice implicationso Gradual transitionso Recognition of process and stageso Normative experiences

Voices of transition

‘If you live with you parents you have a choice whether you leave home or not. In care you get kicked out, you don’t feel you belong there once you have left’

‘I want to get out of care but then I don’t want because I don’t have anybody outside’

‘When we leave care why should they stop caring’

A journey of ideas: attachment theory

• Maltreatment within families – attachment problems• Placement stability key mediator of positive adult

outcomes• Compensatory attachment, stability and continuity• Further placement movement and disruption in care• Contribute to relationship difficulties• Increased detachment after leaving care and difficulties in

settling down in adulthood – drift and ‘not belonging’• Policy and practice issues

o Attachmento Stability and continuityo Skilled social work practice

Voices of attachment

‘I’ve got a great big space around me which is mine and nobody enters, and why I don’t know - whether it come from care, having been let down so many times, or living with people for so many years and then going and you never see them again …. you build up a barrier to protect yourself … because you get hurt so many times …

‘People try and break it, to get in, and you don’t let them because you are so frightened that it is going to happen again … you’re going to get let down or hurt again, and that’s it with me you see. I never get to know people … when you do get someone you cling to them so much that you lose them … they can’t cope with the pressure you are applying on them’.

‘I’ve moved around all my life, so it was hard trying to settle down’

A journey of ideas: life course perspective

• Sees young people’s lives as an integrated wholeo Pre-care, in care, time of leaving care

• Recognises inter-connected dimensions of young people’s liveso How accommodation, health and well-being, and careers are connected

and reinforcing

• Recognises the inter-relationship between personal biography, agency of young people and social and economic contexts

• Policy and practiceo Interventions across the life-courseo Inter-agency responseo Impact of social and economic factorso Involving young people in serviceso Challenge to single outcome measures

The life course and outcome measures

‘Ethnographic research, using life course theory to explore the transitions of young people leaving care reminds us of the complexities in evaluating outcomes and the limitations of using single normative measures at fixed points in time – such as educational attainment at 16 years of age …

There is a need to recognise the different starting points of young people, given the diversity of their social and family backgrounds; their care experiences; the dynamic nature of ‘outcomes’ for young people – they often change between ‘official’ assessment periods; the separation of outcome measures from each other, even though they are often closely inter-connected …… and the normative assumptions often held about young people, whose lives have not been easy, achieving independence by 18 years of age’

A journey of ideas: participation and children’s rights

• Right’s based approaches to children’s serviceso To uphold children’s rights and fulfil legal responsibilitieso To improve services and decision makingo To enhance the democratic processo To promote children’s protection

• Involving young people in decisions that affect their lives at both an individual and policy level

• Individual involvement through ‘leaving care’ pathway planning and review process

• Policy involvement through young people ‘in care’ organisations and local authorities

• Participation and advocacy activity embedded within culture of organisations – rights based approaches to children’s services

Examples of policy participation: LILAC, Children in Care Councils and Pledges

‘The Lilac project, (Leading Improvements for Looked After Children), organised by A National Voice, trained young people from care to become inspectors of children’s services – to see how well local authorities involve young people in their own care, in the planning and evaluation of services which shape their lives and how effectively they deal with complaints by young people … they also train young people to carry out assessments of how services involve young people in local areas, and deliver training on participation

Young people are also represented on Children in Care councils to review policies and produce ‘pledges’ – commitments by local authorities to provide specific services

Social inclusion, universality and selectivity

• Young people leaving care are first and foremost are young people

• Their destiny is shaped in part by opportunities and policies common to all young people, e.g. youth unemployment

• International research shows high risk of social exclusion for care leavers – but also differences between care leavers and between different groups of care leavers

• Social inclusion, universal and selective serviceso Universal policies to tackle social exclusion important, ‘connects’ care leavers with

other disadvantaged groups of young people. o But many remain high risk group – universal policies by themselves may have little

impacto Selective or specialist policies needed as pathway by care leavers to access

universal serviceso ‘Social investment model of support’o Important young people not ‘trapped’ within specialist welfare projects

A journey of ideas: a resilience framework

‘Resilience is ordinary magic’• Overcoming the odds, coping and recovery• Ecological perspective – individual development and social

context• Gives coherence to ideas discussed above:• Promoting resilience through:

o Attachment. stability, continuity; o Positive sense of identityo Promotion of education, health and welfareo Social transition – gradual and extended; o Supporting pathways to adulthoodo Across the life course - in care, leaving and after care, and; o Through universal and selective services

Summary points: ‘the poverty of theory’

• There is a growing body of empirical research studies and these make an important contribution – more descriptive than evaluative

• Many of these studies are detached from theory in terms of context, exploration of concepts and ideas and building theory

• Different ideas, theoretical approaches and perspectives have been explored – and there are other possibilities

• This presentation demonstrates that it is important to link empirical and theoretical work

• This has the potential to enhance our understanding of leaving care issues, as well as the theoretical foundations of practice