Care leaver mental health research

From 2020-2024 The Care Leavers Association was a partner in the EXIT research project, led by Warwick University, which explored what helps or hinders innovation in relation to leaving care services. As part of this work, we undertook some direct research with organisations who had developed innovative responses to improving the mental health and wellbeing of care leavers. The report highlights that there are many different approaches that can be taken in this area.

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Graham Gaskin

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.

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New Year Honour for our National Director

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

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Hundreds of Children die in care!

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

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Review of Children’s Social Care

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

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JAKEB ARTURIO BRADEN (1969-2021)

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

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Case For Change Response

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

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Darren Coyne

It is with great sadness that we announce that Care Leavers Association (CLA) Project Manager Darren Coyne has died this morning, after a short illness. Darren was one of a kind. He was a straight-talking Yorkshireman who cared passionately about improving the lives of care experienced people of all ages. Prepared to tell truth to power, he was also an amazing support worker for individual care leavers and for groups of care leavers. He could, and did, work with anyone in the cause of helping care leavers, from members of the House of Lords to young care leavers in the criminal justice system in need of support. Wherever he went,… Read More

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