ARU Final Report

Full Report – March 2021 11 2. Background and approach 2.1 Background to the research Covid-19 and the associated restrictions on public life have had a huge impact on everyone. Young people have been particularly affected with schools and colleges closing and limitations to social life. Staying at home has restricted outdoor and physical activity, led to boredom and stress, and increased screen time amongst young people (Cortina et al., 2020a; 2020b). Parents and carers struggled to meet the needs of these young people at home and this was compounded by reduced support from social services, leaving many families feeling “utterly abandoned” (Children’s Commissioner, 2020). In fact, 76% of families who had previously been receiving support from social services before lockdown (such as respite care and summer play schemes) saw it all stop during the crisis (Disabled Children’s Partnership, 2020). The current research was part of a wider project led byBirminghamUniversity and Essex CountyCouncil and funded by the Department for Education. The wider study explored how social work services have supported children, young people, and families during the pandemic, across six local authorities (LAs): Cornwall, Essex, Hertfordshire, Medway, South Tyneside, and Stockport. Essex County Council invited researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) to collaborate with them to ensure that the voices of care experienced young people – specifically care leavers – were represented in the wider project. As such, the research reported here was developed by a research team of care leavers and support workers across the six local authorities, with the support of the ARU researchers. It explored care leavers’ experiences of support during the pandemic, in particular what they found helpful or unhelpful about the response of Leaving Care Services and how we can learn from this to better support care leavers during the pandemic and beyond. In their research with care leavers in Wales, Roberts et al. (2020) use the term ‘care experienced young people’ or just ‘young people’. However, in our study the term ‘care leavers’ is used as that is what the young people participating in the research team referred to themselves as. Throughout this report we use the terms ‘care leavers’ or just ‘young people’. This report begins with this background to the research, followed by an introduction to the importance of hearing from young people about their experiences and support needs during the pandemic. It then sets out the participatory research design with care leavers as part of the research team and the methods used: from deciding the priority areas and designing the questionnaire, to data collection using an online questionnaire and focus groups, data analysis, and developing the recommendations and resources based on the findings. We also provide details of the participants involved and the ethical considerations for their involvement. The findings are presented across four major themes: • Practical challenges and support including finances, accommodation, travel, education and looking after children.