For looked after children, statistics show us that because of our background we are less likely to be successful in various aspects of our lives compared to our peers, with the main areas being education, mental and physical health, and healthy relationships. Taking this into account, looked after children do experience a more positive outcome than if we were not taken into care.

How can we change this? What do we need to help us be successful?

To start, school should be a safe place for looked after children to learn and overcome the barriers we are faced with. Things that have helped me in the past at school are; having a key adult, (not necessarily my teacher but someone that I could recognise would help me and make me feel secure), an advocate at home to communicate with school. I was incredibly lucky my foster carer played a significant role in my education and helping me get to where I am today. Another thing I feel is important is having a sense of control throughout the day. Let’s face it, we have lost most of the control in our lives, so instead of having time out or isolation, space to have a walk or a room that feels safe is a better option. Because of our background we may have missed big parts of our education therefore we may be behind. for young ones make learning fun, for everyone reading is the key to success and helps develop language skills and literacy, helps us build empathy, how to handle challenging feelings and improves concentration and memory. I tend to read more non fiction that fiction but there are some amazing books around, one of my favourite authors is Tom Percival and one book I found really interesting is the wrong shoes it is aimed for 7-year-olds and up, I will not say anymore but read it to your children or buy it for them to read.

To help us have healthy relationships not just with our birth family but our looked after family and friendships. We need to feel secure and confident in our environment let us know what is expected of us help us with our emotions, communication, and be realistic. Do not sugar coat things and do not forget to celebrate our achievements this helps us build our trust confidence and self esteem.

To help with our emotional and physical health we will need to feel safe, help us recognise and encourage our interests by learning new things, being part of a team, regular exercise, healthy diet, relaxing and focusing on positivity. Have patience and give us the opportunity to identify what is important to us, allow us to have a voice and more importantly listen to that voice.

We will catch up, we will succeed, we must not be victims all of our lives.

To end this blog one of my favourite quotes:  “It’s not whether you get knocked down it’s whether you get back up”

The Nameless Onion.

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