Over the past five years, the University of Bristol and Coram Voice, have been developing the Bright Spots programme, which helps local authorities better understand the well-being of the children in care.
Official statistics provide only a partial picture of children in care. Data focuses on areas such as where children live, how many moves they have and how they are doing
in terms of education and mental health. Measurement is predominantly of negative outcomes such as substance misuse or involvement with the criminal justice system. None of this tells us about the experience of care from children’s own viewpoints: are they happy, safe and feel they are doing well?
The Bright Spots programme addresses the knowledge gap. The project has created a set of well-being indicators to allow services to design their work around what young people say is important to them. The indicators are measured by an online survey – ‘Your Life, Your Care’ (YLYC).
Read the report summary here
Professor Julie Selwyn, Levana Magnus and Dr Bobby Stuijfzand
February 2018
Alliance for Childhood 