Nest

DISCOVERY AND INSIGHTS

OUR APPROACH

We used research papers and in-depth interviews with industry experts and care-experienced individuals to collect data. As a part of our problem discovery process we conducted research through a variety of methods and resources:

• Analysing 10+ research papers on children in care and care leavers
• 16 In-depth interviews with industry experts
• Engaged with 2 local councils and their primary social workers
• 3 expert interviews with voluntary organisations that work with children in care
• Three interviews with care-experienced people
• Studying the book "Free Loaves on Friday" by care-experienced

We then created a map that documents the key events and emotions of a young person's journey through the care system; right from Entering Care, Transitioning, the trench moment of Leaving Care, milestones where support reduces and stops, and finally where the system fails them.

KEY INSIGHTS

01

Lack of stability:

First being instability: whether it is change in placements, in schools, in handover to different teams which makes maintaining the relationship much harder; there is turbulence and instability throughout the system.

02

Lack of choice:

These young people have no choice in the professionals they interact with, the kind of support they receive, where they get to stay and when they want the support to end, leading to them having no support system.

03

Poor mental wellbeing:

Thirdly, this system constantly affects the young people in care, leading to low mental being,

SERVICE PROPOSITION

NEST

Nest is an activity program designed for young people in the care system. It offers aspirational, community, and life skill-building activities each week, providing consistency and a sense of choice through voting on upcoming activities. This fosters personal growth, relationship building, and improved mental well-being, helping youth in care to thrive and achieve their potential.

TARGET USERS

Nest is developed for the young people within and beyond the care system. We focused on young people aged between 10-25, since two-thirds of children in care are aged 10-17. These young people typically have complex backgrounds, lower social and emotional skills, and find it difficult to form positive relationships. There would be three groups based on age; Explorers (10-14 yrs), Navigators (14 - 18 yrs) and Achievers (18 - 25 yrs). Each cohort would have a maximum of 20 people. 

NEST aims to start within the system early on, and provide proactive support by creating a network, before the drop off in support later.

TYPE OF ACTIVITIES

The activities would be grouped in 3 different categories. 

1. Aspirational activities, where young people get to try different skills that can lead to new career paths
2. Community activities like sports and having meals together
3. Art activities like painting and drawing

The weekly session would begin with a check-in where we focus on short activities around understanding and awareness of their own mental wellbeing, and end with them voting on what they would like to do within the given options for the next week.

STRUCTURE OF NEST MODULE

Each module would run for 6 months with an initial ice breaking period and then a rotation of activities in each category. There would be a longer module focusing on a particular aspirational skill like Photography. Towards the end of the module, young people would go back to the rotation of activities in each category, with added responsibility in the activities like planning the menu for meal night. To end the module, they go on a trip to increase bonding.

HABIT LADDER

Through the activities, we want them to climb this habit ladder, which starts with solely showing up for activities, and then leads to increased engagement with the activities and collaboration with peers and mentors. Eventually, these activities place them in a leading role, helping them with managerial and life skills. We hope that their experience would eventually make them feed back into the system as volunteers.

FURTHER DETAILS

KEY PARTNERSHIPS

As an entity, Nest would initially operate as a charity or a not for profit, to avoid being bound by the policies and cut off limits in the care system. We would work in collaboration with local councils, as they would put us in touch with the young people. We would leverage existing spaces like Careleaver Hubs and community centres to conduct the activities. Key partnerships that would help Nest function would be with corporations who focus on building a home, such as John Lewis, and other voluntary organisations working in this space such as Catch22 and Become.

BIG VISION

By advocating for policy change and a restructure, in the care system our big vision is for Nest to become the default to all children in care. This would involve expanding roles of people within the system such as Independent visitors and converting them into a group mentor. Nest would bring together entities like social prescribing and virtual schools. Policy change would increase the age limits services up to 25.