It is well-reported that poor educational outcomes for children in care and children with a social worker can have a negative impact on their lives. Whether it’s access to work-based opportunities, or a successful transition into adulthood, educational achievement has a huge role to play in a young person’s life. In this blog, lived experience […]

Ric Flo is a lived experience leader, rapper, and founder of Mantra Music, the world’s first record label exclusively for care-experienced artists. For the latest episode of our ‘In Conversation With’ series, Luke Rodgers BEM, founder of The Care Leaders, chatted to Ric to learn more about his background, his passion for music, and how he’s supporting […]

When young people enter care, it can seem like the system takes a young person’s identity and gives them a new one, projecting them into a confusing world with new terminologies and often leaving them with little understanding of what’s happening. In this article, The Care Leaders, together with Madlug founder, Dave Linton, discuss what really […]

The information we write about a child is either a passport or a barrier to them being able to access services they need and deserve. In this blog, we speak to the founder of The Care Leaders, Luke Rodgers BEM, about why children and young people in care have records written about them, when this […]

An estimated one in three children is exposed to at least one traumatic event by the age of 18. In this article, Luke Rodgers BEM, founder of The Care Leaders, explains why minimising the impact of trauma starts with recognising messages in behaviour. “When people talk about messages in behaviour in our sector, what they’re […]

“What you go through doesn’t have to define you, and you can choose to look at it differently.” This is the message being driven home to girls and young women between the ages of 14 30 years old by the organisation Daddyless Daughters run by Aliyah Ali. The organisation provides vulnerable girls and young women, […]

As part of National Care Leaver Week, we spoke to lived experience leader and director of strategy for The Care Leaders, Luke Rodgers BEM about what a lived experience leader is,  what first inspired him to make a change in the system, and how The Care Leaders are helping other lived experience leaders to do just […]

Originally from East London, Jerome Harvey-Agyei is a lived experience leader and co-founder of The Topé Project, a volunteer-run organisation supporting care leavers “who may not see beyond their circumstances to understand their life potential”. For the latest episode of our ‘In Conversation With’ series, we chatted to Jerome to learn more about his story. […]

Aren’t we all born to love and be loved? This is a question we discuss in the first session of our ‘Journey Through Care’ training, and together with Madlug founder, Dave Linton, in this article. How do we better support young people in our care? What constitutes a child in need? And how can we […]

Scott King is a Lived Experience Leader and now, the founder of training company, Section 31 Training. For the latest episode of our ‘In Conversation With’ series, we chatted to Scott about his time in the care system, his involvement in change-making movements, and being an advocate for care leavers. Scott was taken into care when […]

Maggie Atkinson is an English educator and the former Children’s Commissioner for England. After a career in teaching, she moved into public service administration, initiallyin education, but later in children services. For the latest episode of our ‘In Conversation With’ series, we chatted to Maggie about the importance of empathy when working with children and […]

Over the last 2 years young people have been thrown into an unknown world of social isolation and future uncertainty. The already present sociocultural pressure to keep up with friends is made all the more complex when the primary view they have of their peers is through the picture-perfect lens of social media. Now more than […]