This blog post is originally posted at Leicestershire Cares.

A new book by Dr Louise Roberts, ‘The Children of Looked After Children: Outcomes, Experiences and Ensuring Meaningful Support to Young Parents In and Leaving Care’, was released in March 2021. The book brings together the findings of a five-year Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre (CASCADE) research study that was funded by Health and Care Research Wales.

The idea for the study came from Voices from Care Cymru (VfCC), an independent organisation dedicated to upholding the rights and promoting welfare of care-experienced children and young people. The book provides some much-needed evidence about children born to young parents in and leaving care and explores the support available when young people become parents.   

Listening to parents’ views and experiences was a key priority of the study. The study included parents with different experiences: some were new parents, others were looking back on their experiences, some felt they had people to support them, others felt isolated and alone, some were living with their children, while others were separated from them. An advisory group of parents supported the study. Work is on-going and parents are currently developing a good practice charter based on the book’s recommendations. To mark the release of the book, we asked the group what they thought about the book and who they hoped would read it.

To find out more about the parents’ support group, please contact Voices from Care Cymru.