Coram Voice and the Rees Centre have published a report aiming to provide insight into the subjective wellbeing of children in care. The report summarises responses to a survey of nearly 10,000 children and young people in care aged 4-18 years between 2016 and 2021. Findings include:
- A larger proportion of young people (aged 11-18 years) in care rated themselves as having ‘low life satisfaction’ compared with young people in the general population.
- A greater proportion of young people living in residential care or supported accommodation reported lower wellbeing than those living in foster care and kinship foster care.
- Around 1 in 7 children in care ‘hardly ever’ or ‘never’ felt included in the decisions that social workers made about their care, though most children felt included at least sometimes.
- For all children and young people in care, having good friends and trusting and supportive relationships were important.
Further information including links to the report and a summary are on the Coram Voice website and the report is also discussed in an article published in Community Care.