ARU Final Report

Full Report – March 2021 33 perpetuated existing issues for care leavers. This was echoed in the focus group discussions. Some young people talked about not having any friends or family to connect with before the pandemic, again emphasising social isolation as a major issue for care leavers. Others talked about being cut off from people for various reasons, such as being away from home for University and not having met any other students, not being able to go into the office and catch up with colleagues, or not being able to work: “I moved into my own flat in February 2020 when I was 17, and for somebodywho doesn’t have any family or anything like that and as somebody who constantly throws themselves into their work and that’s it, it’s been pretty difficult… I’ve been pretty lonely.” (FG: Female, 18) “Well I don’t really have family or friends to keep in contact with so I don’t feel it really applies to me.” (FG: Female, 20) Become (2020) stressed the importance of care experienced children and young people staying in touch with parents, siblings, and other important people because it helps them to develop a sense of identity and belonging which consequently promotes healthy and stable relationships. It has been suggested that efforts to reduce loneliness and boredom for care experienced young people should not only be made during the pandemic but should be revisited regularly, for example by helping young people to talk to their friends, family and peers (Cortina et al., 2020a; Roberts et al., 2020). 4.3.2 Covid-19 restrictions to social life The Children’s Society (2020) household survey revealed that although the majority of children and young people felt they had coped well overall with the restrictions of the pandemic (84% of those who responded to this aspect), some found it verydifficult to cope with not being able to see friends and family (30% and 37% respectively). Care experienced young people often encounter disruptions to their friendships and family relationships due to placement moves and living far away, and the pandemic has added an additional layer to this disruption (Essex Involvement Team, 2020). Similarly, our research found that the pandemic and particularly the restrictions to social life, including different tier andbubble systems,made connections with family more difficult for some young people: “I normally see my Mum over holidays. I saw her briefly in August, but cannot go there for Christmas. I was seeing friends daily in college, that stopped. We can see each other now at college but there is the shadow of Covid, we can’t do certain things, this has impacted my friendships. I used to see ten plus people, this is now four or five. I live in a rural area and only have one friend nearby who I can see socially outside.” (FG: Female, 17) “When it comes to being lonely and isolated, personally I’m away from home at University so I have a support network back home and can keep in contact with them but it’s more difficult for me because they might do something as a group but I haven’t been able to attend because of education things, but at one point they were tier 1 but we were tier 3. The tier system and the whole bubble system as well. What I would class as my bubble, then they have their own bubble. To begin with I was working so I had a work bubble but then we were furloughed so that bubble has gone, almost like the bubble has gotten smaller and smaller.” (FG: Male, 21) “Not being able to see anyone at all no family or nothing was terrible and like I said before I felt completely disconnected from everyone and ended up not making my check ins and not answering the phone. I understand the risks and obviously the law but I think anyone and everyone has suffered mentally throughout this pandemic so people who already struggled