Extraordinary Lives: Creating A Positive Future For Looked After Children and Young People In Scotland

4 Nurturing our children

Children and young people should live within a supportive family setting, with additional assistance if required, or where this is not possible, within another caring setting, ensuring a positive and rewarding childhood experience. (Vision for children 2005)

They care for you like a parent should. (Colin)

That feeling of being looked after, of being cared for. And not having to worry about how feelings were paid for 'cos at home there was never enough money and we always owed somebody something. (Carrie)

98. All the contributors to this review identified the importance of caring relationships with adults, relatives and friends. However the realisation of these relationships requires careful planning, guidance for staff and carers on appropriate boundaries as well as skilled and understanding adults.

The importance of promoting resilience

99. All those who are looked after away from home will have experienced separation from parents or significant carers. If children can be helped to overcome the effects of their experiences, they are much more likely to achieve their maximum potential. Short and long-term outcomes for looked after children can be enhanced if all those who are responsible can work to support the development of their resilience. Fonagy (1994) describes resilience as normal development under difficult conditions. Gilligan (2001) suggests a resilient child has more positive outcomes than might be expected, given the level of adversity threatening his or her development.

100. Factors that promote resilience are found in children's own emotional attributes, in their families and in the immediate environment in which they live. Children can be helped to develop resilience by being able to contribute to their families, having a social role that is valued and by experiencing educational success. A supportive family is one of the single most powerful factors and therefore it is important that the qualities of a supportive family are re-created in every setting in which children are cared for. The majority of looked after children who are not at home are placed in foster care, which provides a substitute family for them. Some children thrive in another family, others, often older children, find it too painful to be in a family which is not their own and prefer residential care. Others were uncomfortable or embarrassed by being at such close quarters in a family. Mark explained his experience of foster care:

Foster carers act like they are your family at New Year and stuff like that and you feel, I don't know how to describe it, you feel, well obviously a stranger because its somebody else's family - I don't know it just felt weird. At the children's home at the New Year and everything we were all just like a big family and it was good.

101. There can be positive turning points for children and young people, where small incidents or actions can make a difference. Recognising them is very important for all carers and staff who may feel that what they are doing is not enough. The young people who took part in this review told us about many minor incidents which to them made a major difference, but which probably their carers have long forgotten. One young person remembered her guidance teacher saying, " you know you can do it." Another remembered a worker who helped him to send a mother's day card to his mum in psychiatric hospital. One teenager, whose parents were both in prison, remembered a worker who just let her talk about what was good about her parents. One young person in a secure unit told us how valued he felt by being asked about his choices of food. The message to carers is that you can make a difference even if you and the young person do not realise it at the time.

Providing emotional warmth

102. Children develop their personal identity and a sense of self-worth through their relationships with other people. Attachments need not be to only one person. Children and young people can be looked after by several adults and cope well, even when they are separated from important people in their lives. The Cool with Change research project (Highet and Jamieson 2005) looks at how family change affects young people and what kinds of support are helpful. The study recruited young people who had experienced family change. The interim report found that " informal support networks, mainly friends and wider kin, are extremely important to most young people" (Highget and Jamieson 2005:6). It also found that " schools are an important site for the provision of support but many children have reservations about how and by whom this support is provided. Many prefer an external person coming in from outside to support them" (Highget and Jamieson 2005:6).

103. In Celebrating success (Happer et al. 2006) the young people identified a range of adults including social workers, residential staff and teachers as well as foster carers and relatives who had given them a sense of belonging and acceptance. They were sensitive to any sign that their carers valued them less than other children:

Even some children's homes, you develop that sort of idea you know, which workers are just there to work and which ones are there to help you. You can basically tell, I don't know if you do it subconsciously or just looking back on it. (Luke)

Small signs of acceptance can make a big difference, for example Liam's foster carers gave him a key to the house. At his previous foster home, only the carers' birth children had keys. Ross told us about how his foster carer makes him feel part of the family:

When me and my brother are out with my foster dad and he meets his friends he says, 'These are my two laddies,' and it feels good. It makes you feel accepted, like you belong. (Ross)

104. When carers, whether foster carers, residential staff or family, were committed to the young people they looked after, and showed they championed them, young people felt good about themselves despite other problems and stresses. Amber and Colin explain:

If I ever broke down, if I ever needed any help at all, they would help me. I know for a fact they would help me. (Amber)

At home you just dragged yourself out of bed and went to school, no breakfast or anything. In care … you got up, had a wash and got dressed. Your clothes were pressed for you and you got a good breakfast and everything. They cared for you properly, like a parent should. (Colin)

A number of people we interviewed told us about the importance of trust in their relationships with the people who cared for them:

You see, if you're in care, the thing you want is for someone to trust you. If you can see that somebody trusts you it makes you feel happier. It makes you want to get it right in your life. It makes you want to get your life sorted out. (Darren)

The importance of feeling secure

105. Shaw (1993) and Patterson, Watson and Whiteford (2003), in studies of looked after young people in residential care found that they were unsettled by a high turnover of staff. Changes of social workers too are difficult for children to understand and manage:

I thought that none of my social workers liked me because they were all leaving. (Tanya)

106. Many employers rely on agency staff who may stay a few days or months. We found one secure service where as soon as a new staff member arrived the young people asked them if they were from the agency or permanent. Creating relationships is difficult in agencies where the turnover of staff is high (Clark et al. 2005). Many looked after children feel their parents have rejected them. Any subsequent loss of significant adults can further undermine their self-esteem:

When you change social worker you have to start from scratch again and explain things. It's all in your notes, but if you have half a drawer full of notes it's difficult for anyone to remember. I think social workers need to develop a relationship with … the young people. They need to be there for them, they need to give them stability and support. (Luke)

107. Staff turnover presents a major challenge to 'good parenting' by agencies. One of the key messages from the Scottish Executive's national strategy for the development of the social service workforce in Scotland a plan for action 2005-2010 is that supporting workforce development can benefit employers through improved retention rates for staff and improved service delivery. Employers supporting the development of their residential care staff may help reduce staff turnover but this cannot be entirely avoided. What local authorities can do is to make sure that the ending of a relationship with one social worker and the beginning of a relationship with another is managed carefully.

108. A child who parts company with an adult well, and with understanding of the reasons, will be more able to make a new relationship. New workers also need to acknowledge with the child that they may miss the previous worker or carer. This may seem obvious but many of the young people who took part in this review would have liked more opportunities to talk about people who had cared for them and their loss. Management support is important to allow staff to prioritise direct work. Research on young people leaving the care system has suggested that retaining links with their residential care placement or foster home can be a critical part of gradually moving towards independence (Biehal et al. 1995). Sometimes carers provide a vital link with the child's birth family.

Staying in touch - support from a former foster carer
A foster carer who had fostered a girl at the age of four and whose mother had died, kept in contact when she moved to long-term carers, and many years later came to her graduation ceremony. The young person put special value on her attendance as the carer was the only person who had known and remembered her late mother.

Supporting children and young people when they move

109. For children looked after away from home, their first move is from their family to either a relative, foster or residential care. Many children move to strangers. Research studies (Sinclair 2005, Commission for Social Care Inspection 2005) tell us that few children have a choice about where they go. Children who become looked after in an emergency or in an unplanned way often have to go to a temporary placement. Many children are only looked after for a short period and then return home.

110. If children are moved a number of times there can be a cumulative and negative effect on their ability to relate to peers and adults. Siobhan was moved suddenly, and without explanation, after many years in a foster home and although now in her 20's she still thinks about the reasons:

You know, you have all these questions but nobody's got any answers. (Siobhan)

Children may begin to believe they are at fault. They may feel much rejected and be unable to trust others:

I've had to move school quite a lot, make new friends and that. All the schools do the work in a different way so that's been hard. (Claire)

Till I came here I didn't trust nobody, 'cos I kept thinking I was going to get moved again. (Ian)

111. As we noted earlier in this chapter, adults who care for children and young people consistently underestimate the children's feelings towards them and often do not appreciate the trauma that can be caused by moving a child from one family or unit to another. Children and their carers who contributed to the Adoption Review (Adoption Policy Review Group 2005), told how they were distressed and unsettled by moving from one placement to another. Denial of the depth of children's feelings by adults lies partly because children and teenagers in particular, often do not show their true feelings directly, sometimes expressing them through aggression. Working with distressed children is emotionally very demanding and to survive the experience adults sometimes protect themselves by denying the strength of their and the children's feelings.

112. We found some residential homes which took great care in helping a child to move.

A member of staff in the new home went to meet the child in their current placement, and then the child and social worker visited. The child's current carers were invited to visit their new home and then the child came to stay for a weekend. Only after a planned introductory process did the child move in. The home also has a guest room where relatives can spend time with the child and if appropriate stay overnight. As a result the child quickly settled in.

113. Some of the most powerful comments from the young people came from them describing being moved from a foster home or care home. Not only does a move disrupt the daily routines and relationships, which provide security, but also equally it often leaves the child or young person with feelings of bewilderment, anger, grief and loss. Glenn summed this up when he described being taken into care:

They split us all up. I think if we had all been together I may not have got involved in crime, drugs and smoking cannabis. I think that is where some of my anger is from.

Luke described a different and more helpful experience, where he knew about being moved from a children's home into foster care and a plan was made to introduce him gradually:

When I moved from the children's home - my foster parents were about thirty miles down the road from the children's home - they decided that they [social work department] would move me slightly; a week, then two weeks and the primary school I was in - I was half way through primary six at the time - they said they would keep me in that primary school until I go into primary seven, so it sort of made it easier instead of moving in one big lump.

This plan enabled more of Luke's daily routines to be shared with his new family. Where children have to move, information about their daily routines should be shared, so that as much continuity as possible can be preserved. As one social work manager commented:

We do share the big history, of where the children have lived and when, but we need to share children's wee history - what kind of toothpaste they like, what time they like to have their tea, their favourite foods - the small things that really matter.

114. Some foster carers told us of their feelings when a placement came to an end in an unplanned way:

At one stage we were up the pole looking for him, out in my car looking for him all over the place. And I thought I can't take any more of this. I have got other children to think about … and I said I can't take him back. I phoned social work and told them … And I never got a phone call. My family were all phoning the next morning, did you find him? And we got a message on the answer machine … saying they had found him at his aunties, which is where I said he would be in the first place. He had lived with me for eight years. And when I told the social worker I wasn't amused she said "after all, you have washed your hands of him". I had looked after him for eight years, she had only been working with him for six months!

When a placement ends in an unplanned way it can be painful for both the child and carers or staff. The best outcomes for children can be achieved if the adults involved meet soon after the breakdown of the placement, to examine the factors which contributed to ending. There may be learning for the future both for the child concerned and other children and young people who may be placed in the family or unit. The views of the child or young person should also be sought and the possibilities of sustaining relationships explored.

115. The Scottish Executive has asked children's services partnerships to evaluate their performance using the indicators in the quality improvement framework for integrated services for children and young people. One of these indicators is the number of accommodated children with three or more placements has reduced. We think that this is a helpful measure. However even three placements can be unsettling for children and the deployment of resources to support them in a placement can in the long run save the resources which are required to help children who have been affected by placement moves. Many young people in secure provision have experienced breakdowns in their adoptive and/or foster placements. We discuss the need for greater resources to support substitute placements later in chapter 7.

What helps create stability for looked after children?

Links with birth families

116. For most children and young people, maintaining relationships with family members and other significant adults gives them a sense of identity and continuity, which contributes to their stability. Cleaver (2000) found that maintaining contact was essential if the plan is to reintegrate the young person with his/her birth family. We discuss in chapter 7 what can help children to return home and remain there safely and successfully. In some circumstances, direct contact may not be in the child's best interest but children who cannot have contact with birth parents still need to know about their family background and history (Owsu-Bempah 2005). Local authorities should help the child sustain important relationships as this will promote their welfare.

117. The kinship children and young people interviewed by Aldgate and McIntosh (2006) were asked to draw a map of the people who were important to them. They said that relatives, brothers and sisters (including stepbrothers and stepsisters) and even pets were important in their lives, along with significant adults in the community, such as their teachers. The children valued the time they spent with their birth families because it helped them to understand why they were not living at home. One kinship child told us:

I want to stay with my mum more often. We miss her, we always miss her. We all want to see our mum. I sometimes feel really sad talking about it. Now I don't want to stay with my mum because then it would be sad on my gran because I have been living with her for a long time. I still want to stay with my mum though and my gran. It's a hard decision.

118. Hunt (2001) found that regular contact with their brothers and sisters can support a child's developing personal identity and they can support each other in coming to terms with shared bad experiences:

My baby brother's dead cute. We see him loads. He even gets to stay here sometimes. (Lorna)

Attending school regularly

119. Positive relationships within a child's school and local area contribute to their well-being and attending school regularly helps stability. School problems, especially frequent or long absences, cause a strain on families and carers and can lead to more moves for children. When looked after children move, social workers and carers may have to make a difficult choice between the child changing school or travelling to their present school.

120. Some children in Scotland attend schools which teach their faith as part of the curriculum and life of the school. Others attend classes in the evenings and/or weekends, which help them to learn about their faith. Some of the young people who took part in the review were disappointed that staff or carers had not helped them to keep up their faith. A study by Smith and Khanom (2005) found that as children get older, friends who have the same faith can become more important to them.

Friends and social networks

121. Strong and satisfying friendships contribute positively to children's lives. Aldgate and Jones (2006) found that children who have experienced secure, stable relationships with adults are more likely to have good relationships with other children. Children can show a remarkable ability to adapt to their changing circumstances and make new friendships when caring adults support them:

I did miss people when we moved but now it's not a big issue missing them because I got friends here and now they are good too. (Michaela)

122. We found in both Celebrating success (Happer et al. 2006) and Time well spent (Aldgate and McIntosh 2006) that daily routines and activities provide safety and security for children and young people, both the big things such as going to school, and the small things like watching a favourite programme with their carer:

You'd come out your bed, you'd go downstairs for your breakfast at half past eight, which was another good thing for me, the routine, something that I'd never ever had before. (Carrie)

Those who had lived with foster carers told us about having the chance to take part in everyday family activities, such as shopping, cooking and walking the dog. Young people living in residential settings also valued the comfort and sense of normality they gained through their everyday routines and activities:

The staff would always sit with us and have a cup of tea and watch 'Corrie' and have a laugh and a joke. I loved it. (Thomas)

Securing long-term stability for looked after children

123. Many children remain in foster care throughout their childhood and adolescence, or live with kinship carers. Long-term plans are required when a child is not able to live with their birth family for the foreseeable future. Children who remain looked after may be moved to long-term carers or be adopted.

Concurrent planning for children can ensure that plans are in place for them if there are difficulties in their current placement or at home. Concurrent planning enables two approaches to be developed at the same time, only one of which might be needed.

124. Concurrent planning was developed some years ago in the USA to try to focus planning for children who were unable to live with their families:

The concurrent planning strategy uses traditional good social work practice. The one notable addition is the idea of pursuing the contingency plan at the same time as efforts are made to achieve the primary plan of reunification (Weinberg and Katz 1998).

A study in England (Monck et al. 2003) found that concurrent planning with parents did bring the issues about what was good enough parenting into the open between social workers and families. The study also found that many birth parents were not entirely clear about what they had to do to improve their parenting to the point where they could resume the care of their child or children. It also found a lack of clarity amongst local authority workers about the aims of concurrent planning, there was confusion about what the term meant. However, the study suggests that concurrent planning can provide an effective tool for better ways of arranging permanence for looked after children.

125. In 2001, the independent Adoption Policy Review Group ( APRG) was commissioned by the Scottish Executive, partly in response to the declining numbers of adoptions. In June 2002 the group reported on the place of adoption services within the spectrum of services for children and young people, the quality of recruitment, selection and assessment procedures for prospective adopters and the quality of post adoption support. The group made 107 recommendations, almost all of which have been accepted by the Scottish Executive. In June 2005 the Scottish Executive conducted a consultation involving a wide range of groups and individuals who had experience of adoption personally or professionally.

126. There are fewer than 400 adoptions a year in Scotland (of which around half are to step-parents) so the majority of looked after children remain in foster or residential care. Older children who are adopted can find that this can offer them security but the risk of breakdown increases with the age of the child. Although there are differences in findings between research studies (Strathclyde Regional Council 1993, Triseliotis 1998/99) there is broad agreement that at least a third of all adoptions of children over the age of nine break down within two years. Some adopted children want contact with members of their birth families and 'open adoption' where there is some contact has increased in the past 20 years. Some authorities provide post adoption support groups for parents and young people and support the placements of older children. However the responses to the consultation on adoption found that some participants believed that Scotland lags behind England which has 11 post adoption centres. There are none in Scotland.

There is an urgent need to establish a post adoption centre in Scotland as a central point and resource for information, training, research, advice and support and linking with local support services … The Scottish Executive decision not to recommend that there should be a duty on a local authority to meet any assessed need is to put it mildly a cop out. In the 1976 and 1987 Adoption Acts in Scotland a duty was specified to provide post adoption services. But they are patchy, under-developed and not equally distributed. (Adoption Policy Review Group, Scottish Executive 2005:34)

127. The adoption policy review group recommended a new permanence order which would give defined rights, responsibilities and stability to foster carers by providing a legal order which secures the child's placement, for which a local authority would apply. The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Bill 2006 once passed will put this into effect. The review also recommended that unmarried couples could adopt as a couple, rather than the existing situation where only one is given legal status and the other has to apply for a residence order. Same sex couples will also be able to apply to adopt.

Providing nurturing experiences into adulthood

128. Many looked after young people become independent before they reach 18 years. Therefore young people who have already experienced greater stress or difficulties in their lives have to adjust to adulthood much faster, with less reliable support from families. Dixon and Stein (2001) found, of young people leaving care in Scotland nearly half felt they had no choice about when they left care. Some felt abandoned when their placement came to an end. One said simply " I got told I was leaving!"

129. The Regulations on Supporting Young People Leaving Care in Scotland (2004) place a duty on local authorities to assess the needs of young people leaving care. Planning materials called 'Pathways' were prepared and disseminated to local authorities to help them carry out this duty effectively. Pathways are designed to make sure that local authorities, carers and other professionals and services work together. Pathways planning should take place with all looked after young people whether looked after at home or looked after and accommodated. We found many examples of workers and carers providing continuing help and support that was evidence of their level of commitment to the young person:

My foster parents, they've always been there when I needed them. When I was in 'uni', they would come and pick me up and take me back down. They would say 'If you want to come here for the summer it's not a problem, and you can come on holiday with us if you want'. (Luke)

Many young adults continued to be given practical help by foster carers, residential staff and social workers after they had left care:

They'd come down and help me paint the place. One of the staff is a curtain maker and she made all my curtains and bedding and another one's husband came and plumbed in my washing machine. It was all in their own time, you know. But all the simple wee things, I don't know what I'd have done without them. (Tara)

Columba 1400: Leadership academies for young people leaving care

Columba 1400 delivers leadership academies to young people who are leaving or have recently left care. Leadership academies are run in Columba's centre on the Isle of Skye.

The need for leadership academies

There has been widespread frustration that the outcomes for young people leaving care in Scotland are not as good as they should be. Research has highlighted that young people leaving care have particular needs. There have been a number of changes to try to better support this group of young people, including the introduction of pathway planning. The Leadership Academy at Columba 1400 offers young people an opportunity to think about themselves and their lives, what their strengths are, and how they can change their futures.

The good practice

Underlying the leadership academies is a belief that young people who have experienced tough realities often have strengths that they have yet to tap into. Columba involves the young people at three stages. First, support workers who are usually already working with the young person, identify who they think would benefit, and start to prepare them for going to the academy. At the second stage, young people and support workers attend the intensive week-long academy on Skye. This involves a series of individual and group challenges, setting a plan for the future, and graduating at the end of the week from the academy. At the third stage, the young person and the support worker work together in the community to achieve the young person's plan.

The people involved

Columba 1400 has been working with young people and their support workers from a number of local authorities across Scotland, as well as with one national voluntary organisation. Key to the success of the programme is the support workers, who help young people prepare for the experience and support them with their plans. A number of young people who have completed their leadership academy go on to work as volunteers with Columba, sometimes in leadership academies with business leaders and sometimes in promoting Columba.

Outcomes achieved by young people

Young people we met who had attended the Columba leadership academies were very positive about their experience. They talked about how the experience changed their thinking and the direction of their lives by helping them to get a job, go to college, or change their offending behaviour. The Scottish Executive has commissioned an evaluation of the leadership academies for young people leaving care which will focus on outcomes achieved for young people.

130. Some looked after young people who are serving prison sentences will also benefit from continued support whilst serving their sentence and on release. We heard of one voluntary organisation where the staff visited young people with who, they had worked, who went to prison. An informal arrangement such as this does not cater for the needs of all looked after young people who gravitate to custody. Coordination between criminal justice staff and child care staff to follow-up and support all looked after children in custody in every local authority would, in the long term, reduce their chance of becoming homeless and often returning to prison. Louckus et al. (2000) found that 45% of all young people in young offender institutions had been in residential care at some point in their lives. A recent study (Holmes and Gibbs 2004) estimated that 46% of prisoners in England and Wales had been looked after as children. Under the Children Act 1989 and the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, children in England, Wales and Scotland are eligible for continuing support while they are still in prison. The National Children's Bureau has developed a resource pack, Tell them not to forget about us!, to identify ways in which young people coming out of prison can be helped.

131. In his annual report 2004-5 (Scottish Executive 2005a), HM Chief Inspector of Prisons ( HMCIP) found that 18 children under the age of 16 were held in prison in Scotland during that year. These children were generally held for short periods of time and HMCIP had no reason to believe that they were not treated properly. He pointed out that the procedures which apply to under-16s in prison were followed strictly. What HMCIP did question was the appropriateness of children being held in prison at all. The distance from home and family, exclusion from school, isolation from peers and the likelihood of children mixing with adults with more experience of criminal activity were all viewed as potentially damaging experiences. All local authorities in Scotland should have procedures which alert them to any child who is detained for any reason in prison so that they can quickly identify the most appropriate placement for the child's particular needs and circumstances.

What we can do to nurture children.

i. Listen to children and young people to help strengthen their resilience.

ii. Value children and young people by remembering their likes and dislikes.

iii. If children and young people have to be moved, explain why, so they are better placed to understand and accept this.

iv. Learn from placements that end prematurely. Adults who care for looked after children who have unplanned moves should work together to find out the reasons for the move and what steps might have prevented them.

v. Make sure that care plans for children and young people identify where the difficulties in a placement might arise, how these might be minimised and the support which is available for the child and the adults who care for them.

vi. Create stability for children and young people by preserving or renegotiating relationships with their birth families if safe to do so; encourage regular school attendance, help them to keep their friends and use the law to secure their placement.

vii. Help children and young people leaving care to identify and consider their career choices, and prepare them emotionally and practically so that they either have work or a place in further education.

viii. Support children and young people who wish to continue to worship and/or learn about their faith.

ix. Provide comprehensive and accessible post adoption support services for adults and children and young people.

Key issues:

creating greater stability in the residential childcare workforce
making sure staff have the time and training for careful and thorough assessment and care planning. Crucial times for looked after children are when they come into care, when they move or when they leave. Caring relationships are important but by themselves not enough. Each stage requires staff to assess, plan and follow through
making sure that all those leaving care are supported whilst they continue to need that support
assessing the impact of the current arrangements for young people leaving care in Scotland
making post adoption support available to all adoptive families who are needing help
making sure that looked after young people who are in prison receive support from the local authority whilst in prison and on release.

Further reading

Newman, T. What Works in Building Resilience?, Essex, Barnardo's

Scottish Executive (2002) Growing Support, Edinburgh, Scottish Executive

Dixon, J. Stein, M. (2001) Still a Bairn. Through care and Aftercare Services in Scotland. Edinburgh, Scottish Executive

Highet, G and Jamieson, L. (2005) Cool with change, young people and family change

websites

Young people's newsletter at www.crfr.ac.uk/research/coolwithchange.html

Being fostered - Children's Rights Director CSCIwww.rights4me.org.uk

Scottish Through care and Aftercare Forum www.scottishthroughcare.org.uk

British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering www.baaf.org.uk

The Fostering Network, Scotland www.fostercare-scotland.org.uk/scotland

Columba 1400 www.columba1400.com/