Coram Institute report finds declining wellbeing among care leavers
The Coram Institute for Children has published a report based on 27,000 responses from Bright Spots surveys conducted across more than 70 local authorities between 2015–24. The analysis shows that one in three care leavers experience low well-being, rising to nearly half among those with a long-term health condition or disability. Care leavers consistently report lower life satisfaction, happiness and sense of purpose than both children in care and their peers in the general population, with rates of low well-being increasing from 29–32% over the last decade. Although most children in care say their lives are improving, well-being declines with age and drops sharply after leaving care. Young people describe losing supportive relationships at the point of transition, contributing to loneliness, reduced emotional support from Personal Advisers and increasing feelings of being unsafe, with a third of care leavers not always feeling safe at home.