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What is Lifelong Links?
Lifelong Links aims to ensure that a child in care has a positive support network around them to help them during their time in care and into adulthood.
‘Relationships and long term social connection is the cornerstone to child and family welfare’
(Isabelle Trowler, Chief Social Worker for Children and Families, (July 2016) Putting Children First, Department for Education)
The Lifelong Links model includes tools and techniques for Lifelong Links coordinators to use to search for and find family members (known or unknown to the young person) and other adults (such as former foster carers or teachers) who care about the young person. This network is then brought together in a Lifelong Links family group conference to make a life-long support plan with, and for, the young person. The local authority should integrate the Lifelong Links plan into the young person’s care plan and social workers should work with the young person and their support network during their childhood and transition to adulthood.
Watch this short animation which describes the Lifelong Links process, produced by Hertfordshire County Council and their young people
On this page you will find information about:
Why is Lifelong Links needed?
The Care Inquiry (2013) conducted by eight voluntary organisations operating in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, concluded that the greatest failing of the care system and associated child welfare procedures is that they too often break, rather than build, relationships for children in or on the edge of care.
Children aged 10 to 17 years are the single biggest age group of looked after children. They are also the age group most likely to be subject to multiple placements. This instability has multiple impacts on young people:
- Some cease to invest in building relationships with their new carers, thus inadvertently sabotaging the placement.
- Many use social media to search for relatives putting themselves at risk of further rejection or abuse.
- The confused identity of young people in care can lead to them making attempts to run away from care.
Yet research shows that stability and support from their family and community are the most important ingredients in young people making a successful transition to adulthood (DfE, 2014). The failure of the care system to work more effectively with families when children enter care and throughout their time in care too often leaves young people without positive informal support networks to fall back on economically and emotionally. This can result in loneliness, destitution, mental ill-health and engagement in self-destructive or risky behaviours.
By offering Lifelong Links soon after a young person enters care, Lifelong Links aims to ensure those social networks can be available for them in care, providing stability during their childhood and support as they become adults.
What Lifelong Links meant to me
Watch what Lifelong Links meant to me: Sandy’s story
Watch what Lifelong Links meant to me: Sammie’s story
A big thank you to:
Abby, Sammie and Sandy who were willing to share their own personal story and the impact Lifelong Links has had on them.
The ongoing development of Lifelong Links
Funding from the Department for Education Innovation Programme enabled a three-year trial of Lifelong Links (2017-20). 875 children benefited from the trial in England. The trial initially involved seven local authorities, and this grew to 12 in the third year.
Funds from the KPMG Foundation, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, RS MacDonald Charitable Trust and The Robertson Trust have enabled a trial (until 2023) of Lifelong Links in Scotland. Lifelong Links is now being offered to children and young people in care in five local authorities in Scotland.
The trial was carried out to determine whether Lifelong Links is effective in improving outcomes for children in care. It focussed on working with children and young people under the age of 16 who had been in care for less than three years (five years in Scotland) and for whom there was no plan for them to live within their family or be adopted. The evaluation of the trial in England was conducted by the Rees Centre, University of Oxford. It concluded that Lifelong Links had a significant positive impact on young people, with 74% living in their foster care or children’s home a year later, compared with 41% of young people who did not receive Lifelong Links. Lifelong Links also improved a young person’s sense of identity and increased the number of family and friends connections. The report is available to read in full here.
The trial in Scotland is ongoing and is being conducted by CELCIS, University of Strathclyde. To read more about the impact of Lifelong Links visit here.
Family Rights Group is now working with local authorities interested in offering Lifelong Links to all children in care. We are also working with partners to explore how Lifelong Links could benefit:
- Children and young people in care and care leavers;
- Children and young people in custody;
- Young people at risk of exploitation.
We would like to thank KPMG Foundation, The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, The Department for Education Innovation Programme, The Robertson Trust, The RS Macdonald Charitable Trust, The Dulverton Trust and The Rayne Foundation for investing in Lifelong Links.
Family Rights Group is excited to be working with the Innovation Unit on the Always Hope project to offer Lifelong Links to care experienced young adults in prison and on release. The aim of the service is to help connect or reconnect young people who were previously in care with a network of people who care about and can support them.
For young people serving shorter sentences (under a year) the task will be to identify a network that can support them on their release from prison, helping to make a smoother transition and reduce the likelihood of reoffending.
For young people serving longer sentences (over a year) the aim will be to connect them with a network of people that can maintain contact and support them while they are serving their sentence, and beyond on their release.
The project is being piloted in the West Midlands with specially trained Lifelong Links coordinators from Birmingham Children’s Trust and Coventry City Council and will be independently evaluated. The Prison and Probation services are supportive partners with an ambition to extend and mainstream the project across all prisons in England.
This exciting development of Lifelong Links is being supported by Esmée Fairbairn foundation, Barrow Cadbury Trust and the Ministry of Justice.
How to commission Lifelong Links
Our funding means we can currently only help 4 in 10 people
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