A new report, Views from Home, captures the views and experiences of children, young people and families supported through intandem and what more must be done.
Funded from the Promise Partnership in 2021 intandem sought to understand more where mentoring adds value, where there are gaps and what can be done to develop intandem in the way children, young people and their families need and want.
This is an important piece of work as we know from previous research that children and young people who are looked after at home do not always have the support they need, in a responsive and timely way.
A vital part of the project was the recruitment of a Development Officer, who had experience of the care system, who supported the design of the research and conducted the interviews.
More than mentoring
A key theme was the importance of developing flexible support with children and young people telling us that building positive, long term and trusted relationships with others is important to them.
From the survey responses it is clear that children and young people value their relationship with their mentor. The mentoring provided by intandem was perceived as reliable, responsive and enriching. These included the ‘stickability’ of mentors and the longevity of mentoring relationships – with the average intandem mentoring relationship lasting 17 months.
The findings also confirmed intandem is more than mentoring and working alongside families is vital.
Recommendations
The report concludes with 10 recommendations made by the children, young people and their families all of which intandem acknowledges and is committed to taking forward. To do this, we need to continue to invest in our approach to involve children and young people in the design and development of intandem; how we share learning with others and embed change across our partner charities; and how we collaborate and partner with statutory services, particularly social work teams.
Part of a collective response
While this research was intended for intandem’s own learning and development, it highlights where we can focus our collective efforts. intandem recognises– we can only be successful in delivering on The Promise if we work together to ensure children and young people grow up loved, safe and respected.
We hope that this report will be useful to anyone involved in the lives of children and young people who are looked after at home.
- Read the full report: intandem Views from Home Report 2022
- If you would like to discuss or have a conversation about any aspect of the report we would like to hear from you.
