Care experience and family
A Place to Call Home: Understanding the Importance of Home in the Children's Social Care System in Northern Ireland
Action for Children · 2024
About this report
This report by Action for Children explores the experiences of care-experienced young people and frontline staff in Northern Ireland's children's social care system, focusing on what makes a good home and the barriers to positive outcomes. Five young people and eleven staff took part in focus group discussions, sharing experiences of housing instability, financial hardship, lack of joined-up services, and poor workforce continuity. Key findings include that care leavers face acute housing shortages and a damaging income cliff-edge at age 18, while systemic workforce problems and a lack of trauma-informed practice undermine stability and trust. The report makes nine recommendations to Northern Ireland's decision-makers, covering housing supply, anti-poverty action, workforce reform, and improved transition support for 18–25-year-olds.
Research details
- Methodology
- Focus groupMixed methods
- Sample size
- 11
- Sample
- Five young people with care experience (including those in supported accommodation, temporary hotel/B&B placements and fostering) and eleven frontline Action for Children staff in Northern Ireland.
- Who it's about
- Care-experienced / care leavers
- Place
- Northern Ireland
- Youth involvement
- No youth involvement