Majority of children in care in Dorset say lives have improved
The ‘Bright Spots’ survey was commissioned by Dorset Council, and asked the views of children and young people between the ages of 4 and 17
Results of a recent survey show that the majority of children in care in Dorset feel their life has got better since coming into care.
The ‘Bright Spots’ survey, which was commissioned by Dorset Council, was carried out by Coram Voice and asked the views of children and young people in care between the ages of 4 and 17.
The report set out six factors associated with wellbeing: trusted and available social workers, having good friends, liking school, seeing siblings as often as they want, feeling safe and settled, having trusted and sensitive carers.
For all children and young people having good friends and trusting and supportive relationships were really important. This included trusted carers and social workers.
Liking school influenced well-being for all age groups and feeling safe where they lived and settled was also important for children in care whether they were aged 4 or 17.
Seeing mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters as often as they wanted was highlighted by all age groups.
Councillor Byron Quayle, portfolio holder for children, education, skills and early help, said: "The Bright Spots survey gets its name from the fact that it illustrates the bright areas that our children tell us about and I am really pleased that there were lots of them in this survey.
"It’s important that we keep asking our children and young people how they feel and really celebrate the things that are going well whilst putting things in place to improve the areas that young people tell us are not so good.
"Dorset Council gathers information all the time about the well-being of our children in care, but this survey is different because it asks the children themselves and gives us a good view of whether they feel safe, happy and contented."
82% of children in Dorset in the age range 8 to 17 who had been taken into care felt that their life had got better since coming into care.
All of the primary school children aged between 8 and 11 had a trusted adult in their life. One child commented: ‘I love my life now and I don’t want to change it because I love my carers and my dog.’
The survey also compared some of the findings with national studies to give an indication of how Dorset compares with other local authorities.
- 47% of young people (11-17) had had the same social worker for the last 12 months, compared to 34% in other local authorities.
- 97% of young people (11-17yrs) answered that they were taught life skills at least ‘sometimes’ (like cooking healthy food, washing clothes or using money). This was higher than the average proportion in other local authorities (89%).
There were also some areas for improvement which will be picked up as actions over the coming year.
- The number of children and young people who like school or college was lower than in other local authorities (63% of 11-17 liked school a lot or a bit compared to 78% in other local authorities).
- Children in care in Dorset are less likely to have one really good friend than the general population: 24% of 11 to 17 year old felt they could hardly ever or never do similar things to their friends, which was higher than other local authorities at 17%.
- The proportion of young people (24%) aged 11-17yrs who were unhappy with the way they looked was significantly higher in Dorset than in other local authorities (16%).
Councillor Quayle added: "It is important that we know the areas where we need to make improvements so that we can work on them and improve the lives of our children.
"We know that it is really important that our young people feel like they belong which is why we are carrying out work over the next few years on ‘Belonging’, including working with our schools.
"We hope that this will help our young people develop firm friendships, become happier with their appearance and help us and our schools find ways to make schools a better place for our young people as well as tackling bullying together."