Roberts, H;
Ingold, A;
Liabo, K;
Manzotti, G;
Reeves, D;
Bradby, H;
(2018)
Moving on: Transitions out of care for young people with learning disabilities in England and Sweden.
British Journal of Learning Disabilities
, 46
(1)
pp. 54-63.
10.1111/bld.12211.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Young people with learning disabilities are frequently underrepresented in research accounts. This study describes the experiences of young people moving from the care system. METHODS: We scoped the English and Swedish literature for first-hand accounts and interviewed four young people with learning disabilities leaving the English care system. We combined findings from both sources. FINDINGS: “Grey” and campaigning literature are more likely than academic studies to include the voices of service users, but even then, the voices tend to be those of professional or family carers. Both the literature and interviews demonstrate young peoples’ awareness and understanding of the social as well as financial benefits of work. Good foster care could be precarious, and young people in unhappy placements lacked direction. Exploitation around a young person's housing and finances could be problems. There was evidence of “threshold” difficulties in accessing services. CONCLUSIONS: Despite an NHS commitment to listening to users in the UK, and similar aspirations in Sweden, our search of the literature identified few studies reporting care leavers' with learning disabilities own words. Our data add to the voices of a group frequently silent or silenced. We found evidence of resilience and hope as well as difficulties and frustrations. The accounts in the literature and our interviews provide data on what it can be like to try to operate “the system.” The people we spoke with and those whose accounts we found in the literature were thoughtful and engaging. They provide an important source of knowledge for policy and practice.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Moving on: Transitions out of care for young people with learning disabilities in England and Sweden |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/bld.12211 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bld.12211 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Empowerment; health & social care policy and practice; independent living; intellectual disability; qualitative; social services |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > VP: Research > Library Services |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10041772 |
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