ARU Final Report

12 Care leavers’ experiences of support during the Covid-19 pandemic • Mental health and wellbeing including formal support as well as activities that care leavers did to help themselves. • Connection and loneliness including online access, support bubbles and having someone to talk to. • Support from services including the vital role of personal advisors/social workers and involvement and participation teams. The findings in these themes are discussed in relation to the recent literature on young people’s experiences and support needs during the pandemic, rather than presenting that literature separately, so that the experiences of the care leavers in this research can be understood alongside those of other young people. The report concludes with recommendations, aligned with both the Care Leavers Charter and the Corporate Parenting Principles (Department for Education, 2012; 2018), and concludes with an invitation to action based on the young people’s experiences and recommendations. 2.2 Hearing from young people Young people with and without experiences of the care system want to be involved in decision- making around the support needs of those in similar situations (Roberts et al., 2020; Street Doctors et al., 2020). Consequently, supports can be developed which are responsive to their needs rather than ad hoc or adult presumed (O’Brien and Dadswell, 2020; Roberts et al., 2020). Street Doctors et al. (2020) explored the experiences of 14 to 25-year-olds at risk of serious violence about their experiences of the lockdown and identified a narrative of young people as supporters of their community and the importance of focusing on their strengths. Indeed, young people would welcome this focus on what they can offer their community during these hard times. and providing such opportunities could support a reduction in criminalisation which has risen as a result of lockdown (Street Doctors et al., 2020). In Scotland, the MCR Pathways Lockdown Survey (2020) took place over June and July 2020 and captured views about the impact of lockdown on mental wellbeing and education from 1,347 young people with experiences of care or on the edge of the care system and experiencing severe disadvantage. Findings will be discussed in relation to the experiences of care leavers in this research, but this report concludes that the most disadvantaged young people should be “fully represented and active participants in decisions that affect them” (p.9). Similarly, it is recommended elsewhere that children and young people from all parts of society are involved in the research, discussions, and decisions made about how they can be supported during the pandemic (Cortina et al., 2020a; 2020b). In line with this, the Scottish Care Leavers Covenant (SCLC) Alliance state: “Relationship-based practice and coproduction approaches with care leavers ensure that their