OUR WORK
As well as publishing two magazines for children in care and influencing policy and practice affecting children in care, the Trust designs and manages a range of programmes and projects that promote improvement in outcomes for children in care in terms of their of their education, health, employability and preparation for leaving care and independent living.
We aim to influence practice in service delivery for looked after children in local authorities and related agencies. Many programmes are piloted in local authorities prior to national dissemination of findings and resulting practice materials. These materials include training manuals, practice guides with recommendations, videos/DVDs, interactive CD ROMs and booklets for young people. All our materials are designed to be available in digital format.
An integral part of our work is consultation with and participation of children and young people in care to ensure that our work reflects their views, experiences and ideas.
For further information about our projects and programmes, please contact: Jenny Robson, Director of Programmes, at jenny.robson@thewhocarestrust.org.uk or Grainne Sinclair, Programmes Manager, at grainne.sinclair@thewhocarestrust.org.uk.
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EDUCATION, TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT
The WOW CD-ROM - 2007
The WOW CD-ROM, produced together with the What Makes The Difference? (WMTD) project, is an interactive resource about the world of work designed for young people in care and those working with them. It follows on from The Who Cares? Trust’s highly acclaimed Employability programmes detailed below.
The CD-ROM is packed full of activities and information relating to exploring skills and qualities, career choices, work experience, decoding job ads, applying for jobs, writing covering letters, understanding person specs and job descriptions, writing CVs, preparing for interviews and achieving in the world of work.
WOW is bursting with vibrant colour, funky graphics, pictures, inspirational film clips from young people and employers, links to useful downloadable documents, project examples and relevant websites.
Young people have been involved at every stage of the development of WOW, from the design, content and testing to actually filming for the CD.
The sections for young people are:
- About me!
A chance for young people to:- Focus on what they like and dislike
- Focus on what interests, skills, qualities and experiences they have
- Be stimulated through discussion with others about how these can relate to possible career choices
- Identify positive points to highlight on their CV
- Looking for job
An opportunity for young to:- View sample job adverts
- Construct a mock covering letter
- Play a multi-choice game to help prepare for an interview
- Find out how to use person specifications and job descriptions when completing application forms, CVs or covering letters
- View a sample CV, and construct their own using a choice of templates and words and phrases they have saved in their word bank from the ‘About me’ activities
- What career?
This section includes:- Inspirational film clips of young people and employers talking about their experience and giving useful tips
- Some career ideas which link back to the ‘About me’ section
- Downloadable documents such as health and safety information and a work experience diary
The working with young people’s section on WOW includes:
- A detailed explanation of all the young people’s activities with pointers for discussion and tips for helping young people get the most out of this resource
- A range of project examples from different local authorities with contact details
- Useful website links
- Supporting material for setting up work experience and employment programmes
For more information, please contact Grainne Sinclair on 020 7017 2782 or grainne.sinclair@thewhocarestrust.org.uk.
For copies, click here for our Publications page or contact Emma Wood on 020 7017 2784 or emma.wood@thewhocarestrust.org.uk
MISSION: Library - 2007
A questionnaire, ‘Libraries – what were you thinking?’, was inserted into the Issue 79 Life Skills edition of Who Cares? magazine (April 2007) along with a poster promoting the use of libraries. The questionnaire encouraged readers to go to their local library and give feedback. Over 145 completed questionnaires were received.
Of the respondents:
- 50% were aged 12 to 14
- 58% were female and 42% male
- 74% described themselves as White British
- 26% described themselves as Mixed, Asian or Black
- 18% had a special need.
- 74% lived in foster care
- 21% lived in residential accommodation
- Of the remaining 5%, two lived in secure accommodation, two lived in residential college and one in a Youth Offender Institution.
In giving libraries an overall rating, 66% responded with ten out of ten. 63% gave computer facilities full marks. 59% responded with ten out of ten in relation to how interesting the books available were. 60% responded with ten out of ten in relation to how easy it was to get information about what’s happening in the local area. 54% responded with ten out of ten in relation to how helpful and welcoming the staff were. Satisfaction with opening hours fell with 46% responding with ten out of ten.
Overall, responses were extremely positive about the libraries that respondents used. Written comments often gave a good indication of respondents’ views and their vibrancy. One young woman responded that it was easy to get information on what was happening in her area, but that not a lot happened in her area!
In relation to magazines, one respondent wrote: "Some magazines like Who Cares? are the best." But not all the comments were positive. One young woman "needed to get some information about [her] disability but could not find anything."
All in all, though, respondents overwhelmingly thought that regular use of a library was extremely useful and encouraged others in care like themselves to make use of the facilities available. Again, direct quotes best convey the respondents’ views and enthusiasm:
"100000/100000! It’s remarkably fantastic!"
"[Staff] always help you find what you want and they take a moment to say hello."
"It’s easy [to join]. First they take a picture of you, then they give you a card with a picture."
"I went into the library with my new foster sister and she joined the library like me so we can visit the library together."
"It's brilliant!"
"Nice, friendly people, quiet time to relax and read."
"The library is a special place for me to read different books in silence."
"It is also very good to socialise with people and it is always clean, tidy and organised."
"It is a brilliant clean place where I love to go to read books."
"Has something for all ages and is very peaceful."
Who Cares? about going to university - 2006
The Who Cares? Trust is concerned to improve the educational outcomes for young people in care and particularly to encourage them to pursue further and higher education. To this end, the Trust has produced two information guides – one for young people aged 14 - 21, and one for the professionals and carers who work with them.
The guide for young people provides a useful stimulus to enable them to consider going into higher education, prepare and plan for going to university and realise their potential. The publication includes information about university life, the application process, qualifications required and the financial and other support they can access whilst at university.
The document for carers and professionals working with young people will enables them to provide the level of support, guidance and aspirations that a good parent would provide for any child.
London University's Institute of Education recently undertook a research project following a group of students through the university process. The five-year project, launched in December 2001, was initiated by the Buttle Trust. The report from this research Going to University from Care was published in 2005. See www.ioe.ac.uk
The Going to University guides reflect the findings of this research, along with reference to the work of Aim Higher and AMOSSHE (student support services).
For further information about these publications, please go to the Publications page.
N.B. This publication has just been updated. The new version is available now.
Supporting looked after learners – A guide for school governors – 2006
The Who Cares? Trust, in partnership with DCSF, has produced a guide for school governors which provides information for school governors about the education of children in public care.
Under section 52 of the Children Act 2004, local authorities have a duty to promote the educational achievement of children in their care. In order to do this, they need the cooperation of schools and school governing bodies have a major responsibility for helping children to succeed: they can champion their needs, raise awareness and challenge negative stereotypes.
The guide includes:
- Brief information on being in care: why children come into care and what their experiences may be
- The policy context, including the Education Guidance, the Social Exclusion Unit report on the education of children in care, and relevant national initiatives
- What governors need to know about policies for looked after children in their school on a variety of issues, including admissions, exclusions, bullying etc.
- What governors can do to improve educational outcomes
- Case study material from young people, governors and teachers
- Additional resources available/useful contacts
- Check lists of open ended questions
Copies are available from:
DfEE Publications
PO Box 5050
Sherwood Park
Annesley
Nottingham NG15 0DJ
Tel: 0845 60222 60
Email:dfee@prologistics.co.uk
Or downloadable from:
www.dfes.gov.uk/educationprotects
www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications
Believe in me – The video - 2005
Training resource for designated teachers of children in care
Believe in me, developed in partnership by The Who Cares? Trust and the National Literacy Association, is a training resource for new and existing designated teachers for children in care.
Both practical and aspirational, it features real designated teachers, genuine case studies and general strategies. It is divided into short sections to promote discussion.
Training notes suggesting specific activities may be downloaded in PDF format here:
Click here for Notes for Trainers
Click here for Notes for designated teachers
To view PDF documents, please download and install Adobe Acrobat Reader.
This video complements the Believe in Me written publication for designated
teachers of children in care.
Measuring progress - 2004
Through Measuring progress, The Who Cares? Trust has been working with social care and education professionals from local authorities, the independent and the voluntary sector to help local authorities to identify the actual and potential achievement of looked after children so their ability does not go unrecognised.
The resources look at issues around personal education planning and managing information; out of authority placements; joint training and multi-agency working; specific interventions at key ages; attitudes and priorities within local authorities; the role of the educational psychologist and an executive summary of a significant literacy intervention that took place in Kent will be included.
Measuring progress was developed in partnership with practitioners and strategic managers from 21 organisations, and includes not only issues raised by the project forum, but illustrative practice case studies, strategic and practical solutions and a list of useful resources.
Measuring progress was funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Dulverton Trust, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the Robert Gavron Charitable Trust.
Looking after Literacy - 2004
Click here to download a PDF of the Evaluation of the Looking after Literacy project in Kent for children in public care.
Click here to download a PDF of the executive summary.
To view PDF documents, please download and install Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Think smart - 2004
Through the Getting the most from school project, and with the help of children and young people from Bournemouth, Harrow and Northumberland, The Who Cares? Trust has produced a set of multi-media materials for children in care aged 8 to 16, to help them to do well in school.
Think smart: Planning to do well is the first of the publications in the Think smart series. This magazine looks at educational planning in an unconventional way, and helps young people to think about their futures and ensure that they get the most out of their education.
Think smart: Bullying is the second publication in the Think smart series, and is an innovative set of bullying cards for children and young people in care. These cards look at the essentials of dealing and coping with bullying.
Think Smart: Moving schools is a wall planner to help children in care to plan their moves between schools, whether at the end of or during the academic year. It will help them keep in mind all the things that they and others need to do, and keep all the information about their new school in one place.
The final instalment of the Think smart series is a fully interactive CD ROM. Think smart: Staying in school looks at the ins and outs of attendance and exclusion. It contains information on being excluded, as well as practical help to stay in school.
This project was funded by the DfES, The Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, JP Morgan Charities, The Joicey Trust and Marks & Spencer.
Time for Children - 2003-2007
Time for Children is a joint initiative between The Who Cares? Trust, The National Literacy Association, TimeBank and Volunteer Reading Help. The project has been working to improve the literacy skills of children in care. Volunteers have been trained to provide one to one reading support to children in primary schools and some residential units working in three pilot areas across the country: The North West, the Midlands and Kent.
Employability - 2000-2002
The Who Cares? Trust’s highly acclaimed Employability Programme (2000–2002) is still influencing practice and has been instrumental in putting the importance of access to further education, training and employment for care leavers firmly on local authorities’ agendas.
The Employability Programme was piloted in two local authorities, Thurrock Borough Council and North East Lincolnshire, and aimed to improve further education, training and employment opportunities for young people in care by:
- Working with young people in a creative way to increase their access to education, training and employment opportunities
- Developing young people's skills, confidence and motivation to enable them to access the opportunities available to them
- Developing a partnership culture of multi-agency working across social services and the whole authority, which acts as the corporate parent
The Programme was developed in the context of a number of government initiatives including The Quality Protects Programme, The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000, the publication of DH/DfEE Joint Guidance on the Education of Children in Public Care (March 2000), and The Connexions Service (2001).
The multimedia materials resulting from the programme are entitled Employability: Building futures for young people in and leaving public care. They provide social workers, Connexions Service workers, young people, carers and elected members with the information and guidance that they need in order to better inform and prepare young people in and leaving the care system around further education, training and employment opportunities.
Six regional dissemination seminars were held at which local authority representatives were given copies of the Employability Pack. The seminars were very well received and many local authorities have modelled their work experience programmes on the Employability manual and are actively using the video, CD-ROM and audio CD as inspirational tools and training materials for young people and workers respectively.
The Who Cares? Trust has responded to a number of requests to provide seminar and workshop events for local authorities, wishing to set up their own Employability Programmes. Delegates at these events have included Elected Members who have corporate parenting responsibilities for young people in their care, senior management and leaving care and allied professionals, including those from Connexions.
Employability Plus Programme - 2002-2004
The Who Cares? Trust Employability Plus Programme was designed as a further development of the Employability Programme - 2000 - 2002.
The Government is committed to raising standards and improving the quality of services for people with learning disabilities. It is the experience of the Who Cares? Trust, that initiatives to provide quality services to promote independence, choice and inclusion which lead to better outcomes for young people, frequently by-pass young people in public care. Young people with learning disabilities amongst this group are even more likely to be marginalised.
Early indications from the research findings into the implementation of The Leaving Care Act (2000) are that young people with learning disabilities or other disabilities remain at the margins of provision.
The main aim of The Employability Plus Programme was to increase the further education, training and employment prospects of young people with learning disabilities who are in and preparing to leave the public care system and to raise awareness of the particular training and employment needs of these young people within the authorities and communities where they live.
The programme aimed to ensure that young people with learning disabilities have the same opportunities as other young people in the general population, and that they participate wherever possible in paid work and therefore lead a more independent life. Young people with a learning disability have the same rights to work as any other young person.
Employability Plus was piloted in Herefordshire County Council and Trafford MBC. The young people in the cohorts were involved in various activities to develop their communication skills, team working abilities, confidence and self- esteem. These included: video and photographic workshops; water sports; basic skills work; bowling; and a cultural exchange whereby young people from Hereford have visited Trafford and vice versa.
Local employers were made aware of the employment needs and interests of the young people on the project. These included: a local nursery school, a fork lift truck company, farm, a video company and a digital arts project and many have provided work experience tasters for the young people.
Integral to the programme was the development of end of programme materials for national dissemination via a series of 6 seminar events for England and Wales to be held in June.
The Employability Pack comprises a video and an interactive CD-ROM. The video features young people from the pilot programmes and highlights how, with the right support, they have been able to integrate into the world of work and training, despite the dual difficulties of social exclusion and learning difficulty. The CD-ROM is a tool for practitioners to use with young people and includes a number of games to stimulate discussion about skills, qualities, choices, interests and life experiences. Printouts from each game enable the young person to build up a profile of themselves in relation to their employability.
The materials were disseminated at a series of 6 dissemination seminars in June for local authorities in England and Wales.
POLICY, RESEARCH AND PRACTICE - CHILDREN IN CARE
Create to Educate – 2007
The main aim of the Create to Educate project was to find out information from the extensive number of creative arts projects young people in care have access to and how these projects can help in building their confidence and self–esteem, resulting in increased motivation and engagement in education and learning.
We contacted a number of local authorities and arts agencies to find out about their respective projects. Projects cover the whole spectrum from visual art to drama to cookery. The term ‘Create to Educate’ fits not only with the aim of using arts to help young people realise their potential, but also as a medium by which to educate carers and professionals about what being in care is like.
The information was collated in a colourful, accessible publication celebrating the power of creative arts with illustrated project examples, recommendations, and quotations from young people. The publication is set in the context of government and other initiatives championing the arts as an effective tool to realise the aspirations enshrined in Every Child Matters and the White Paper.
This publication was disseminated at two seminars held on 30 November 2007 at BAFTA, Piccadilly and on 5 December 2007 at The Think Tank Science Museum in Birmingham.
The events were a celebration and showcase of young people’s creative talents. Feedback from the events and the publication has been extremely positive.
See the Create to Educate page for more detail about the events.
The Going Home Project - 2005-2007
The main objective of the Going Home project was to help promote stability and improve outcomes for children and young people in care through improved reunification policy and practice. The project sought to influence thinking, understanding and attitudes in relation to bringing about improved and lasting reunification practice, so that children and their families can live more settled, contented lives.
Research has indicated for some time that significant numbers of children and young people experience repeated episodes in care, often resulting in loss of friends, networks and familiar neighbourhoods, as well as separation from their family and sometimes a change of school.
Well-planned and supported reunification can hopefully play a part in achieving greater stability and improved outcomes for these young people.
The Who Cares? Trust worked with Norfolk County Council and Warrington Borough Council, as two partner local authorities on this project.
Project activity has included:
- Review of current approaches to and outcomes of reunification practice
- Consultation with young people, their families, carers and service providers about what they feel is needed to achieve successful and lasting reunification
- Multi-disciplinary workshops in the two local authorities which explored ways in which different services can work together and contribute to reunification practice – as part of Every Child Matters: Change for Children
The project wanted to adapt and build on effective family support and preventive strategies.
The Journey Home - How children’s services can support the reunification of children with their families publication, reports in detail on the Going Home project.
Reunification Matters: Supporting successful reunification for children and families when children go home from care
The White Paper, Care Matters: Time for Change, puts a welcome spotlight on this neglected area of policy, research and practice--children returning home from care. The White Paper acknowledges that improving reunification practice will demand a sophisticated approach "with a range of services made available to support families as and when they need it." (Care Matters: Time for Change, 2007).
Reunification Matters is a supplement which has been produced to encourage and assist children’s services to focus on reunification as part of their White Paper implementation strategies, and to provide links between the learning from the Going Home project and measures set out in the White Paper.
To order copies of The Journey Home, which comes with ten free copies of Reunification Matters, click here for the publications page.
HEALTH
The Who Cares? Trust aims to raise awareness of particular health needs – physical, mental and emotional, of children in care and to give these children accessible health information. For more information about specific publications, please go to the publications section.
Who Cares? magazine and KLiC! (the edition for younger readers) is also a vehicle by which The Who Cares? Trust provides health information directly to children.
The latest edition of Who cares? about health has just been updated and reprinted. Who cares? about drugs is currently being updated in line with new legislation and will be available in August 2008.
Watch this space for information about a forthcoming publication around mental health and self-esteem!
The WHO CARES? Trust is a Registered Charity (No. 1010518).
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