Understanding the educational experiences and opinions, attainment, achievement and aspirations of looked after children in Wales

This report presents the findings of research that explored the educational experiences attainment and aspirations of looked after children and young people (LACYP) in Wales. The findings of the report are drawn from interviews with LACYP and an analysis of available statistics and literature on the looked after children population

Visiting mum: children's perspectives on a supported scheme when visiting their mother in prison

This article reports the findings from a qualitative study evaluating a Visiting Mum scheme that supported Welsh children with a mother in prison. There are 12 women’s prisons in England, and none in Wales. Women living in south and west Wales are currently incarcerated at HMP Eastwood Park, Gloucestershire. This is significant for Welsh children, as journeys to the prison are extensive and costly. This article focuses on the rarely heard experiences of the children when visiting prison. We ran focus groups with 12 children utilising innovative, participatory and creative methods. The findings reveal a hidden population of children who suffer disproportionately as a result of their mother’s incarceration but who were effectively supported by a service which helped to sustain mother–child relationships during their mothers' imprisonment

Listening to the experts: Learning about relationships and their impact on educational experiences from children and young people in state care

This paper reports on the findings from a qualitative study involving 67 children, in or having left care. The research formed part of a project commissioned by Welsh Government which was concerned with educational experiences in Wales, UK. Visual and creative techniques were used to support children’s and young people’s participation in semi-structured interviews and focus groups and care experienced peer researchers took an active role in the fieldwork. The study identified some of the unintended conflicts, consequences, and challenges of well-meaning practice interventions, and highlighted the importance of working with and listening to the experiences of children and young people in care. It also emphasised the salience of children’s and young people’s relational well-being, something rarely considered in an educational context, and argued that the relational aspects of negotiating the care experience merit further attention. Participants’ experiences suggest that there is still much to do in dismantling the structural barriers and the impact of being labelled as ‘looked after', but that by engaging with and listening to the accounts of young people we can move towards developing more informed and effective strategies that can improve both policy and practice

Enabling talk and reframing messages: working creatively with care experienced children and young people to recount and re-represent their everyday experiences

The educational experiences and outcomes of care experienced children and young people is of longstanding concern. The pervasive inequalities they face suggest that current policies have been unable to respond fully to the complex causes of the problem. This paper reflects on a qualitative study into the educational experiences and aspirations of children and young people who are looked after in Wales. The project worked with care experienced peer researchers and drew on visual, creative and participatory techniques to explore 67 children’s and young people’s experiences of education and, importantly, their opinions on what could be done to improve it. This multimodal approach allowed space for participants to think through their subjective, mundane, but important, experiences that operate alongside, and interact with, more structural challenges. A range of films, magazines, artwork, and music outputs were developed to ensure that the project recommendations could reach wide and diverse audiences. This paper argues the voices of children and young people need to be given a platform to inform policy and practice. For this to happen researchers need to be creative in their approaches to both fieldwork and dissemination; harnessing the power of the arts to make positive changes in the everyday lives of children and young people