Deconstructing doing well; what can we learn from care experienced young people in England, Denmark and Norway?

Insights into turning points from the perspective of young people with out-of-home care experience: events, impact and facilitators of change

“…We nevertheless believe that the idea of turning points has the potential to be relevant and helpful for both professionals and young people in recognizing potential, promoting agency, and supporting growth and change. Viewed in this way, rather than contributing to an unhelpful discourse (Evans, 2019), notions of turning points may serve to counter pervasive stereotypes of a homogenous, traumatized group of children and young people, destined for poor outcomes (Bakketeig et al 2020; Evans 2019).…”

Embedded in relations—Interactions as a source of agency and life opportunities for care‐experienced young adults

“…(which also involves Denmark and England). The overall research questions of the project were: ‘Why do some care leavers, against all odds, end up doing well as young adults and what does it mean to “do well’?’ (see Bakketeig et al., 2020). The study includes qualitative data from interviews with care‐experienced people in all three countries.…”

“…Work‐life participation is widely stressed as important in Norway today, and education is a key to obtaining an interesting job (and often to getting a job at all). Against this wider societal context, it is perhaps unsurprising that most of the Norwegian participants could relate to this normative framework, which implies that they saw formal education as an important part of a good outcome (see also Bakketeig et al., 2020). In this light, the sampling criterion of being engaged in education or work was an indicator of success for all the participants, especially when compared to the dominant narratives of the risk of poor outcomes for child‐welfare clients.…”

‘We need to understand what’s going on because it’s our life’: Using sandboxing to understand children and young people’s everyday conversations about care

“…Positive relationships with carers, birth families and professionals have been reported as precursors to CYP engaging in conversations about care (Bakketeig et al, 2020; Selwyn et al., 2015). Indeed, CYP identify that relationship‐building is essential preparatory work before discussing sensitive content, such as life story conversations (Buchanan, 2014) and they are more likely to feel that life story work is beneficial if they trust and feel emotionally supported by the adult with whom they are talking (Ibid.).…”

“…Key building blocks for relationships with professionals identified by CYP are: time spent together doing activities together (Buchanan, 2014); responsiveness and availability, speaking respectfully about birth families and fewer staff changes (Hadley Centre and Coram Voice, 2015); genuine interest from social workers (Winter et al., 2016); and being enabled to be an active participant in conversations (Winter, 2010 ). Strong relationships can provide a scaffold for opportunities to have regular life story conversations (Bakketeig et al, 2020) but the act of holding the conversation itself can also enhance trust and build relationships between CYP and their carers or social workers (Atwool, 2017).…”