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Care Matters conference hailed great success!

The Care Matters: Transforming Lives – Improving Outcomes Conference, organised by Centre for Child and Family Research based at Loughborough University has been hailed a massive success.

The conference, which incorporated the eighth in the series of biennial International Looking After Children (LAC) Conferences, was held at the beautiful Keble College in Oxford from 7 th to 9 th July and was attended by over 250 delegates from over 20 countries.

The conference, supported by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the British Academy, addressed the themes in the White Paper ‘Care Matters: Time for Change’ which sets out the strategy in England for transforming lives and improving outcomes for children and young people in care and forms the basis for the current Children and Young Person’s Bill.

Invited speakers from the UK included Helen Jones, professional advisor on policy for Looked After Children; Professor Mike Stein and Professor Ian Sinclair from the University of York; and Gerri McAndrew, Chief Executive of the Frank Buttle Trust. They were joined by international experts Professor Mark Courtney, University of Washington, Professor Paul Durning, Director of the National Observatory of Childhood at Risk, France; Marit Bergum-Hansen, Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Oslo; and Dr Philip Fisher, Research Scientist at the Oregon Social Learning Center, USA.

Days one and two explored key issues such as placement stability, mental health needs, and education. Day two also included sessions on systems and frameworks designed to improve assessment, planning, review and interventions for looked after children such as the Integrated Children’s System. The final day was dedicated to exploring how young people’s transitions from care to independence in different countries can be improved.

The opening keynote address from Professor Harriet Ward, Director of CCFR and Mark Courtney, a leading expert on child welfare services in the United States, identified the positive and negative aspects of public care in both the UK and the USA. The experts were joined by two young people from Freedom Road Creative Arts, part of the Rights and Participation Project in Hull. The young people have experienced foster care and gave their personal views on what is good and what is bad about being in care, concluding with ways they think outcomes can be improved.

'The input from the Freedom Road teenagers really helped identify the issues to be explored during the conference. So often we discuss research findings and speculate on the experiences of children in care, but rarely do we ask them what they feel needs to change’ said Professor Harriet Ward, Director of CCFR.

‘Freedom Road also went on to perform a selection of their songs for us at the conference dinner which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone and really emphasised the importance of giving young people a voice and creating opportunities for them to develop their talents and skills.’

Reflecting on the young people’s views and key messages from the event, Harriet said:

‘We need to adopt a systematic approach, viewing care as one element in a continuum of family support services, rather than as a separate entity. The most important message is that we need to listen more to children and young people and take better note of what they say.’

Papers from the conference can be downloaded from www.transforminglivesconference.org.uk or obtained from Emma Batchelor by emailing E.J.Batchelor@lboro.ac.uk