What is Lifelong Links?

Lifelong Links works to make sure every child in care and every care leaver is connected to people who care about them – for life.

Lifelong Links is an innovative approach, developed by Family Rights Group, which builds lasting and loving relationships. It aims to ensure that a child in care has a positive support network they can rely on during their time in care and into adulthood.

Family Rights Group supports local authorities to implement Lifelong Links with children in care. We train Lifelong Links coordinators, publish tools and resources, and provide consultancy support.

The Lifelong Links process

An independent, specially trained, Lifelong Links coordinator works with a child in care to find out who is important to them, who they want to be back in touch with and who they would like to know. This might include family members (who they lost contact with, have not yet met, or do not even know that they have) and other adults such as former foster carers or teachers.

The coordinator searches for these people, using a variety of tools and techniques, including our online Circles app. They then bring the network together at the Lifelong Links family group conference to make a plan with and for the child, which the local authority supports to ensure these relationships continue to grow.

The Lifelong Links operational model

The infographic below shows how the Lifelong Links model operates. The child is always at the centre.

Circles – guiding conversations about support networks

Circles is a new online app created by Family Rights Group to explore who in a child’s life is important to them. It is an integral part of Lifelong Links.

Most of us have somebody we can turn to for practical and emotional support, for example, family, friends, or neighbours.

But research for the Care Inquiry by voluntary organisations working in the UK, concluded that the greatest failing of the care and child welfare system is that it too often breaks, rather than builds, relationships for children in and leaving care.

Important relationships are often broken when children enter the care system. Many are separated from their siblings, have to change school, or move far away from family and friends.

Children aged between 10 and 17 are the single biggest age group of looked after children. They are also the age group most likely to be subject to multiple moves.

This disruption and instability can leave children and young people lonely and isolated:

• Some stop believing in lasting and loving relationships, making it less likely that the new arrangement will succeed.
• Many use social media to search for relatives putting themselves at risk of further rejection or harm.
• Some try to run away from care, confused by who they are and who they can rely on.

The absence of positive relationships in children’s lives increases the likelihood that they experience longer term difficulties – such as poor mental health, a tougher time at school, unemployment and homelessness.

Lifelong Links means:

Children and young people in care can develop social networks, have people to rely on, and the chance to build supportive loving relationships into adulthood.

In response to growing recognition that the care system too often breaks rather than builds relationships for children in care, Family Rights Group co-created the Lifelong Links approach with children in care. With thanks to seed funding from KPMG Foundation.

The Department for Education Innovation Programme funded a three-year trial of Lifelong Links (2017-20). Eight hundred and seventy five children benefited from the trial in England, which initially involved seven local authorities, growing to 12 by 2019.

Looking to introduce Lifelong Links for children in care in your authority? Family Rights Group can provide you with a package of support to develop your service.

A big thank you to:

Abby, Kaitlin, Parice and Nicky for sharing their stories and telling us about the impact Lifelong Links has had on them.

December 2024