Your Life, Your Care: The subjective well-being of children in care

The presentation will examine the concept of children's subjective well-being and especially the subjective well-being of looked after children. It will trace the involvement of looked after children in the development of online surveys to measure their well-being, ethical issues raised and the process of cognitive interviewing and validation.  To date, the surveys have been completed by over 8,000 children and results will be presented.  Findings will focus on where looked after children's responses are similar to their peers in the general population and where they differ. Lack of a trusted adult,  feelings of safety and understanding the reasons for care were all very important to looked after children.   Questions about how we might understand gender differences in responses and some unexpected findings will be considered.

Julie Selwyn is Professor of Education and Adoption at the Rees Centre, Department of Education, University of Oxford.   She is a qualified social worker who worked in residential, child protection, fostering and adoption teams before becoming an academic. She is a member of the National Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Boards and was awarded a CBE for services to adopted children and children in care in 2015. Julie, working collaboratively with Coram Voice, has been the academic lead for the Bright Spots programme since its inception.  She has published widely on children’s social care and especially children and young people’s well-being.  Publications  can be found here https://coramvoice.org.uk/for-professionals/bright-spots-2/