ExChange Wales

The ASPIRE Project (Actioning a Schools & Prisons Independent Research Evaluation)In July 2023, the Welsh Government commissioned the ASPIRE Team for a 12-month period to provide options and considerations for a national model of support to improve wellbeing and educational outcomes for children affected by parental imprisonment in Wales. The ASPIRE team is a collaboration led by Families Outside (a national Scottish charity that supports families affected by imprisonment) and supported by two academics, two independent consultants specialising in policy and practice related to children affected by imprisonment, and two research assistants.The study involved five phases of data collection, and included interviews with children, interviews with mothers, observation of the School Zone operating in HMP Parc and HMP Cardiff, and focus groups with fathers in prison. The study also involved a roundtable, stakeholder event held at Cardiff University.This webinar will present the key findings from the study and the recommendations for a pan Wales model of support for children and young people in Wales who have a parent in prison.Presenters and Panellists:Dr. Ben Raikes (Security Lead and Head of Governance) is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Huddersfield.Professor Nancy Loucks OBE, Chief Executive of Families Outside, and visiting Professor at Strathclyde University.Professor Alyson Rees is a Professor in the School of Social Sciences and Assistant Director of CASCADE Research Centre at Cardiff University.Sylvia Stevenson (Research Assistant) a final-year PhD student at Cardiff University, exploring services in Wales that support birth parents following the compulsory removal of their children by local authorities.

This presentation will include findings from ‘Wellbeing in Schools and Colleges (WiSC)’, an empirical research study in Wales, where the objective was to understand stakeholder experiences of delivering and receiving mental health and wellbeing provision for care-experienced children and young people (CYP) in secondary schools and FE Colleges, in order to develop recommendations to enhance service quality and ensure equitable access. In particular, it explored the relationships between social workers, school and college staff, mental health professionals, and care-experienced CYP and how they impacted on delivery and receipt of wellbeing provision. The focus of the presentation will be on the qualitative findings from this mixed methods study including case studies with secondary schools, FE colleges, social care teams, and mental health teams. Firstly, study themes relating to care-experienced CYP’s mental health and wellbeing needs and how schools and colleges try to meet these needs will be explored. Then themes relating to the role of cross-professional boundary working between social care and education staff will be discussed, including the challenges and opportunities of working in this way and how they differ according to age and care experience, e.g. foster care and kinship care. The presentation will conclude with recommendations for practice and policy in relation to care-experienced CYP’s mental health and wellbeing in educational settings and as they transition between them.Presenter: Dr. Sarah MacDonald, Research Associate, DECIPHer Research Centre, Cardiff University.

The Basic Income for Care Leavers in Wales pilot, launched in July 2022, is unique in several ways. No other basic income scheme has given regular payments as large as those received by young people involved in the pilot, nor have other basic income schemes been open to a national cohort of care leavers from the age of 18 for two years of payments. The pilot is being evaluated by a team led by researchers at CASCADE, Cardiff University and the evaluation is now in its second year. This session is based on the first annual report from the study, which includes early findings. We will describe the group of young people receiving the basic income, present a picture of how the scheme is intended to work, and discuss perceptions and experiences of professionals involved with the scheme.Presenter: David Westlake, Co-Investigator, CASCADE at Cardiff University.Further information about the programme can be found on the CASCADE website: https://cascadewales.org/research/the-welsh-basic-income-evaluation/