Listening to the experts: Learning about relationships and their impact on educational experiences from children and young people in state care
Alyson Rees, Louise Roberts, Dawn Mannay, Rhiannon Evans, Eleanor Staples, Sophie Hallett
This paper reports on the findings from a qualitative study involving 67 children, in or having left care. The research formed part of a project commissioned by Welsh Government which was concerned with educational experiences in Wales, UK. Visual and creative techniques were used to support children’s and young people’s participation in semi-structured interviews and focus groups and care experienced peer researchers took an active role in the fieldwork. The study identified some of the unintended conflicts, consequences, and challenges of well-meaning practice interventions, and highlighted the importance of working with and listening to the experiences of children and young people in care. It also emphasised the salience of children’s and young people’s relational well-being, something rarely considered in an educational context, and argued that the relational aspects of negotiating the care experience merit further attention. Participants’ experiences suggest that there is still much to do in dismantling the structural barriers and the impact of being labelled as «looked after», but that by engaging with and listening to the accounts of young people we can move towards developing more informed and effective strategies that can improve both policy and practice.
Keywords
Care experienced, young people, education, wellbeing, relational needs, unintended consequences.
