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Listen
2 The participants
We wanted to hear from those who had been looked after about what they thought had helped them most. Those with first hand experience of being looked after have a unique perspective. We wanted to hear about their ideas for changes that could improve outcomes for looked after children and young people in Scotland. Not least, we wanted to bring their stories to a wider audience, and to challenge the thinking that difficult early experiences automatically and inevitably lead to a troubled future.
There were 32 participants in the study - 16 male and 16 female. On the basis that there should be evidence of success and positive change over time, the study was deliberated weighted towards adults and older young people. We hoped that age and distance would bring an important sense of perspective to our participants' views.
Thirty of the participants were 16 years or older. Of these, 17 were between 16 and 21 years and 13 between 22 and 46 years. Only two participants were aged less than 16 years and had been nominated for the study because of the particularly positive changes in their lives.
Ethnic origin
Two participants were of mixed ethnic origin, 30 were white British. For all participants, English was their first language.
Disability
Five participants had a disability which had a significant impact on their day to day lives.
Experience of being looked after
The participants had been looked after by a number of different authorities from across Scotland (14 in total) including major cities, small towns and rural areas. None were from island communities. All of the participants had been looked after and accommodated away from home. Several had also had the experience of being looked after at home on a supervision order at some point before being accommodated. It was difficult to be completely accurate on this as we were reliant on participants' memories and knowledge of legal orders. At the time of the study, seven of the participants still had looked after status; ten were compulsorily or discretionarily supported by a local authority and 15 no longer had a formal relationship with a local authority.
Although these 15 participants no longer had a formal relationship with the local authority, ten had maintained links in some form. Three were still living with, or were very closely supported by a foster carer, although payments were no longer made by the local authority. A further three participants had retained significant links with foster carers or residential care staff, which they felt was a source of support for them. Four had retained links with their social workers, although in some cases the social worker had changed job or had retired from work altogether.
Participants' stories of being looked after
The stories and words in the celebrating success study are from the biographies of the participants that they gave us in their interviews. These stories and words represent their experiences, as they remembered and told us. We found that not all participants were confident they had accurate information about all of the reasons which had led them to become looked after. All, however, had a reasonable grasp of their background and had been given an explanation which fitted with their experience. Many participants were able to describe in great detail their lives before they became looked after. A number of people talked about how adults, carers and/or social workers had helped them to make sense of events in their lives through life story work or similar direct work.
With two exceptions, participants who had spent periods of time in the care of friends or extended family were unsure whether these were informal arrangements made between family members, or whether the social work department had agreed and supported these arrangements in some way. Some participants knew that they had been looked after at home on a supervision order before becoming accommodated. Others spoke of social work involvement in their families but were unsure about the legal basis for this.
Length of time participants were looked after
As participants were sometimes unsure about their legal status, we also used the threshold of going away from home and being accommodated to explore how long participants were looked after. This was done by asking participants how old they were when they became looked after away from home.
Two participants had become looked after before the age of two; 13 became looked after between the ages of two and ten; 12 between the ages of 11 and 14 and the remaining five became looked after when they were 14 or 15 years old.
More than two thirds of the participants had been looked after away from home for longer than five years. There was a fairly even range of time spent looked after away from home up to the longest period, which was 15 years. Three of the participants had been accommodated for a period of one year or less. One of these was still being looked after at the time of the study and had a fairly lengthy relationship with the social work department, having been placed on supervision at home for two years before moving to a residential unit.
Why participants became looked after
We asked participants to tell us why they thought they had been looked after. For some people, a range of factors had combined to make it impossible for them to stay with their birth families. Some people gave more than one reason. Other studies (Packman and Hall 1998) have noted that children commonly become looked after following a series of interrelated events, rather than for a single reason.
Neglect had contributed to becoming looked after for nearly half of the participants in the study. These participants described a chaotic and neglectful background, where the general standard of care had been low and parents had been unable to care consistently or adequately for their children. Often, this was associated with alcohol abuse by one or both parents. Five participants told us about parents misusing drugs.
Five participants spoke of a parent with a serious mental health problem, and this was sometimes associated with alcohol misuse.
A third of participants had become looked after following the serious illness or death of a parent, or because bereavement or divorce had left a remaining parent unable to cope. A common picture was of a family which was managing until an event meant a crucial support was lost. An incident such as parents separating or the death of a grandparent could tip a family into crisis. A number of participants in the study described a period of increasing neglect. Often children in the family were having to fend more and more for themselves and care for younger siblings. Three participants told us that, with hindsight, they recognised that they had been behaving in such a way as to put themselves at risk. This included one young person who said she had been spending nights away from home with older friends and had been at risk of sexual exploitation.
Five participants told us they had experienced physical and/or sexual abuse.
Nine participants described having lived in a situation of domestic violence. In only one case was this directly responsible for children having to leave the family home.
While several people described having been in trouble with the police in the past, only one gave being arrested for a serious offence as the reason for his removal from home.
Where participants lived when they were looked after
Of the 32 participants, four had spent significant periods of time in more than one kind of care setting. This usually included both residential and foster care. This added up to a total of 21 experiences of foster care and 15 of residential settings. The latter included ten experiences of children's homes or young people's units, two experiences of residential schools and two of secure units. One participant had been placed in a facility for young people experiencing serious mental health problems.
The group of participants had a substantial and varied experience of being looked after and accommodated. They had childhood experiences of loss, adversity and abuse. However, following these experiences they were able to become successful adults. Participants most often talked about the contribution that people who cared about them made to their success. We go on in the next chapter to discuss participants' experience of people who cared about them, and their feelings about these relationships.
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