Many young people in foster care experience significant mental health difficulties, leading to attendance at services where engaging them in psychotherapy that adequately meets their diverse needs is an ongoing challenge. This Ireland-based study illuminates the inherent challenges of working with this population, while informing practice about how to engage with young people in foster care in a meaningful and helpful way.

This study aimed to use longitudinal data pertaining to children who had been adopted from care to examine the relationship between being adopted from care and psychological trauma.

The Scottish Government Implementation Plan sets out the Government of Scotland's actions and commitments to Keep the Promise for care experienced children, young people and their families. The plan lays out what the government will do to Keep The Promise by 2030. The goal is for every child in Scotland to grow up loved, safe and respected so that they realise their full potential.

This study explores the lived experiences of care leavers in Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is a market study conducted by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into children's social care provision in the UK. The study found that there is a shortage of appropriate places in children’s homes and with foster carers, meaning that some children are not getting the right care from their placement. Some children are also being placed too far away from where they previously lived or in placements that require them to be separated from their siblings.The authors recommend the development of national and regional bodies to support local authorities with getting suitable placements for children in the UK.

This article draws on first-person narratives of care leavers in Ireland who have aged out of care and transitioned into independent living in a dedicated social housing programme to examine their strategies for coping with these competing pressures.

This report provides analysis of all up-to-date LA sufficiency strategies with a focus on identifying (I) the main perceived challenges for local authorities (LAs) to meet their sufficiency duty, (II) what actions are being undertaken or planned by LAs to improve commissioning outcomes, and (III) perceived negative consequences associated with using certain commissioning or market shaping approaches. This work was commissioned by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

This research aims to identify and better understand what it is that enables and challenges the necessary improvements needed at national and local level to support children and young people to successfully transition to adulthood.

Separating a baby from his or her mother at birth when there are safeguarding concerns is traumatic for birth parents and painful for professionals. This report presents findings from a study that analysed qualitative data from the lived experiences of parents and professionals where the state intervened at birth. The aim was to identify key challenges and to surface good practice examples with a view to developing a draft set of best practice guidelines for piloting with partner research sites in England and Wales.

It is starting to be recognised that young people with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities making the transition to adulthood from out-of-home care require focused attention to understand their needs and service requirements. Within the UK jurisdiction of Northern Ireland (NI), young people with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities are over-represented in the population of care leavers and yet very little is known about their specific needs. The overall aim of the study reported here was to examine the profile of care leavers with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities in order to better inform how best to configure child and adult service systems to meet their transitional needs.