ARU Final Report

Full Report – March 2021 37 Nevertheless, in the literature children and young people have also reported that the lockdown provided an opportunity for them to spend quality time with their carers and build relationships, including with their carers own children (Essex Involvement Team, 2020; Roberts et al., 2020). Street Doctors et al. (2020) reported similar findings amongst the young people they surveyed, who suggested that lockdown had enabled their communities to come together in a way they had not seen before the pandemic. Such activities included shopping for vulnerable neighbours, joining the clap for carers and celebrating Ramadan as a community. 4.4 Support from services Inadditiontothespecificsupportsalreadymentioned, this theme covers care leavers’ experiences of support from Leaving Care Services more generally, including personal advisors/socialworkers as well as involvement and participation teams. It also includes experiences of support from other corporate parent services, charities, and individuals including friends and family, and highlights the need for better support in some areas. 4.4.1 Support from Leaving Care Services In terms of support from Leaving Care Services, some young people in our research reported that they did not need support but were aware of the support that was available: “I didn’t need help with anything else, but I honestly have faith that my PAwould have gone out of their way to help me more if I needed it.” (Q: Male, 21) “I had everything I needed to be fair.” (FG: Female, ND) Though the majority of care leavers were relatively happywith the support from Leaving Care Services, the questionnaire responses suggested that this support got slightly worse during the pandemic: 64.2% thought this support was fairly or very good before the pandemic, which dropped to 58.7% during the pandemic (see Graphs 9 and 10). Graph 9: How was your experience of support from Leaving Care Services before the pandemic? Number and percent of care leavers Not very good - 5 4 3 2 Very good - 1 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 5 (5.4%) 8 (8.7%) 20 (21.7%) 18 (19.6%) 41 (44.6%) Graph 10: How was your experience of support from Leaving Care Services during the pandemic? Number and percent of care leavers Not very good - 5 4 3 2 Very good - 1 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 10 (10.9%) 8 (8.7%) 20 (21.7%) 21 (22.8%) 33 (35.9%)