What Makes Life Good: Care leavers’ views on their well-being (2020)

For this major report, we analysed responses from 1,804 care leavers in 21 local authorities in England collected between 2017 and 2019 through Coram Voice’s Your Life Beyond Care survey. The study was carried out in collaboration with Coram Voice and the Rees Centre, University of Oxford.

Overview

Over the past five years, we have collected over 10,000 care-experienced voices through the Your Life Beyond Care and the Your Life, Your Care surveys. Children in care and care leavers have told us how they feel about their lives and what they have shared gives an unprecedented insight into their subjective well-being.

Since we started the analysis for this report, understanding well-being has become ever more important. Although we collected care leavers responses before the Covid-19 pandemic, many of the issues raised by young people are likely to have been further exacerbated by the current environment. Almost half of working-age adults in the UK report that the pandemic has affected their well-being. It has impacted on people’s finances, relationships and rates of depression. Understanding how care leavers feel about their lives is essential in order to deliver high-quality services. It is now more relevant than ever to focus on well-being to support care leavers effectively through this difficult time and beyond.

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