Author: David Graham

Today Friday 15th January 2021 the government finally launched a review of the care system. “The Care Leavers Association welcomes today’s announcement from the UK government of the start of the promised review of children’s social care. We look forward to helping the review understand the long-standing failures of major aspects of the current care system and contributing to the development of a far more positive future for children in care and care leavers. We especially commend the statement that “Running throughout the review will be the voices and experiences of children, young people or adults who have been looked-after, or who have received help or support from a social… Read More

Just wanted to share details about Care in the time of COVID a project for the care experienced community which has just been launched by care leavers at Oxford University. This project explores the day to day lives of care experienced adults in the UK during COVID-19. They would like to know how the care community is coping and what helps them. They want to record their experiences during covid in history. This involves submitting a diary entry and completing a short survey the participants well-being and how they’re coping – which should take no more than 15-20mins to complete. Diaries can be written (200 to 600 words), a video or audio entry (3 to 5 mins), a song, music, spoken word or a poem you have written… Read More

In late March, the CLA – like many other organisations – had to respond rapidly to the Covid-19 pandemic (more details here – https://www.careleavers.com/the-care-leavers-association-and-the-covid-19-pandemic/). Following that period of adjustment, we are now relaunching our public activities. From Wednesday 15th of April we are resuming work on various projects and helping individual care leavers with advice, support and advocacy. Carrie Wilson-Harrop and Darren Coyne will provide advice, support and advocacy to care leavers and those supporting them. Alongside National Director David Graham the team will continue to work to influence national government and local authority policy and practice and in particular ensuring that care leavers are fully supported during and after… Read More

Like everyone else, The CLA has had to respond rapidly to the coronavirus crisis. For the safety of our staff team, The CLA office closed last week. Since most of our various funded projects require frequent interaction with other people, they are currently suspended. However, where we can do so without face-to-face interaction, we will continue with other project work. The staff team are mostly on leave whilst we organise ways to continue our work remotely for the time being. We need to find different ways, consistent with staff safety and wellbeing, to support care leavers. We are conscious that many care leavers now face fresh challenges as a result… Read More

https://www.careleavers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Between-Care-and-the-Criminal-Justice-System-A-Multi-Agency-Round-Table-Discussion.pdf The Care Leavers’ Association (CLA) held a series of Care Leaver Roundtable Events in November 2018 at HMP Hatfield, Wealstun and Humber in Yorkshire & Humberside. We have published the report above, which draws on the views of delegates who attended from across the Yorkshire & Humber region. These roundtables were care leaver led and brought together operational and strategic leads from across the region, with a focus on understanding what the region was able to do in response to care leavers and children looked after who find themselves in criminal justice settings