Author: David Graham

Drive Forward are carrying out research exploring care-experienced people’s views and experiences of apprenticeships. The project aims to understand: the barriers care-experienced people face in accessing apprenticeships, what could make apprenticeships more accessible and supportive, how employers and government could improve opportunities in the future. As part of this project, they are running a survey for care-experienced people aged 18 and above. They are keen to hear from both those who have done an apprenticeship and those who haven’t, as all experiences and views are valuable. The survey is open until 31 October 2025 and takes around 10–15 minutes to complete. Participants will also have the chance to enter a… Read More

As part of World Mental Health Day we are highlighting our research work with Cambridge University and others which shows that young people with social work involvement are not receiving the mental health support they need. Read our latest blog here.

Dr Rosie Canning and Dr Jim Goddard discuss the life and importance of Graham Gaskin in relation to accessing social care files. It is not widely known, amongst people who grew up in care before 1989, that we owe our rights to access our child care files to a fellow care leaver. That’s why this this short account was written for Care Experienced History Month.

On Saturday it was announced that David Graham, who has been National Director of The Care Leavers Association (CLA) since 2010, has been awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List. David’s award is richly merited. The official notification records that the award is ‘For services for care leavers’. This clearly reflects David’s hard work, commitment and steadiness throughout his years with the CLA. It also reflects his immense resourcefulness in helping us achieve so much in that time with relatively meagre resources. This includes the years of the pandemic, which were very challenging for us as well as for many others. And for the last 18 months David… Read More

Figures released to the Times reveal that 450 of the UK’s most vulnerable have died over the past decade The government has refused to ban care placements for 16 to 17-year-olds in “unregulated” settings. The government has revealed that 450 of the UK’s most vulnerable children have died in care over the last decade, including 50 that were housed in controversial unregulated accommodation. Figures released to The Times through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests show that 400 “looked after” under-18s died in regulated care placements between 2011 and 2021 — a figure that amounts to 130 deaths per 100,000 children in care. That is more than 16 times higher than… Read More

On the 23rd May the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care published its long awaited final report. Overall we are disappointed with the final conclusions of the review. Whilst we support some of the recommendations the review has missed the opportunity to dramatically improve the lives of young people in care and care leavers. You can read our initial thoughts on the report at the bottom of this page. This is based on discussions with the trustees and staff team. The report is very lengthy and it has a number of supporting documents. We intend to produce a more detailed response in the coming months. The government has up to… Read More

You are all invited to remember the life of our beloved Jakeb.  The funeral will take place at 10am on Friday 21 January 2022 at the Old Chapel of The Manchester Crematorium (M21 7GZ). The funeral will be a brief event and will be followed by a longer reception from 11am to 2pm at a venue nearby (address to be confirmed).  You are welcome to speak and share your memories of Jakeb. Please RSVP to help arrange the speakers and the catering arrangements: thanosch@yahoo.com One of the many causes close to Jakeb’s heart was the wellbeing of people with Neurofibromatosis.  In lieu of flowers, you might wish to make a… Read More

Read The Care Leavers Association response to the government Review of Children’s Social Care Case For Change. The Case For Change itself was just over 80 pages long and covered many different aspects of the children’s social care sector. Given the current strain on our staffing resources we only responded to areas where we felt we had prior knowledge and experience. The Case For Change does highlight some important points that we welcome. However, there are significant areas that the Case For Change has neglected. And throughout the report there are numerous instances where major assumptions have been made and where positions have been taken based on ideology rather than… Read More