Supporting Young People in Care to Make Sense of their Past and Present

The digital recording of everyday memories can improve connections and help young people feel appreciated in ways not usually seen in the current care system, according to a researcher involved in a new study.

Despite lots of memories now being recorded digitally, social care has not yet found a way to safely help store these until now. This research reports on the first widespread role out of a Digital Life Story Work platform - a safe Internet-based storage system - called CaringLife, within one English Local Authority.

The study, led by the University of East Anglia and published this week in the British Journal of Social Work, found that the future roll out of Digital Life Story Work platforms is more likely to be successful if eight key recommendations are considered.

These include carers ensuring children and young people are engaged in thinking if/how they’d like to be involved, when content records all aspects of everyday experiences and when appropriate training and support is available.

The findings provide key recommendations and begin to build a picture of how Digital Life Story Work platforms may become embedded in supporting children with experience of living in state care.

Life story work can have a positive impact

Kiyia Atkinson, 17, was a co-researcher on the study with experience of the care system. He said: “I would say that this work and Digital Life Story Work platforms can have real positive impact on young people and carers. For me, the digital recording of everyday memories can improve connections, help young people feel appreciated in ways not commonly seen across the current care system.

“With the correct training and use there is potential of Digital Life Story Work platforms like CaringLife to have a major positive impact on young people. I think the use of these tools may help families, care workers and people supporting young people to feel part of something in a way can be unique to the experiences of young people in care.

“This research that I was a part of as a co-researcher offers a new perspective that is young person and real-world experience led, it offers a way to change the system to benefit young people and others in a way that they think is appropriate to cater to their experiences.”

Study a chance to see what works

Lead author Dr Simon Hammond, of UEA's School of Education and Lifelong Learning, said: “Digital Life Story Work platforms such as CaringLife are becoming increasingly widespread across social care. However, getting such digital platforms to work in the real world is not as simple as buying and providing them to carers and children. There are complexities that are not yet understand.

“The opportunity to get ahead of the curve in relation to potential widespread role out of digital services and applications is very rare. Our analysis produces important findings which show when Digital Life Story Work platform may (and may not) work, provides eight key recommendations and, to aid commissioning decision-making and practice, offers key learnings to help get this into practice.”

The team analysed routinely collected and CaringLife usage data from 96 children aged 8-17 years olds within one English Local Authority. They also heard directly from 23 people those using CaringLife in the daily lives. This included 14 foster carers, four social workers and five young people aged 10-17 years.

The team, which included researchers from Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, consultancy service Your Narrative, and the University of Oxford, was assisted by three care leavers who were asked to act as ‘co-researchers’. These co-researchers used their expertise to aid the collection and analysis of the interviews and focus groups collected.

'A mixed methods realist evaluation of a Digital Life Story Work platform: What works, for whom, under what circumstances and how?', Simon P Hammond, Carys Seeley, Rosie Blackett, Gabriel Markovich and Geoff Wong, was published in the British Journal of Social Work on May 21.