This report provides a summary of the first year of work by the Between Chapters: Life Story Work for Care Leavers research project. This is a three year project from Blue Cabin, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
In this first year we have undertaken an exploratory process - researching what currently exists in the sector in relation to life story work for care leavers, how practitioners feel about this topic, and unearthing further lines of enquiry to pursue in years two and three.
This year Blue Cabin and independent consultant and trainer Mary-anne Hodd have been exploring the current picture of life story work for care leavers in England. As part of our research we have: mapped current resources relating to life story work for care leavers, completed a review of Ofsted inspections for every local authority in England, and facilitated conversations with local authority staff members, creative and cultural organisations, digital life story work providers, care-experienced young people, and voluntary and charity organisations.
Through this work we have uncovered nine key themes to consider in relation to life story work for care leavers. A brief summary is provided here, and in more detail under each heading in the full report.
1. Life story work for care leavers looks different in different contexts
There is no consistent approach to life story work for care leavers across Englandeither for Local Authorities or other organisations supporting care leavers through pastoral, creative, or charitable settings. Access to high-quality life story work depends on local policy, funding, staff engagement, staff confidence, and many other variables.
2. Identity questions do not stop at 18
As care leavers enter early adolescence, questions of identity, sense of self, and ‘why am I the way I am?’ may become more pronounced. Life story work may help care leavers make sense of their past, the impact that has had on their development as a person, and the way they want to live in the future.
3. Existing tools and approaches are largely child-focused
While there is a wealth of resources, training, and developed approaches for life story work for children and young people aged 5-17, there is a significant lack of tailored approaches for working with care leavers aged 16-25.
4. Accessing records is complex, time-consuming and emotionally demanding
Care leavers may have high expectations that accessing their Local Authority case records will provide answers about their life and the decisions made about them as children. In reality we hear that this process is inconsistently experienced, can be disappointing, and that records may contain information which care leavers may need support to understand or digest. We consider how accessing records could be one part of a wider structure of supported life story work for care leavers.
5. Trust, relationships and relational continuity are key
Meaningful life story work for care leavers relies on key trusted adults in their lives supporting them to make sense of their life stories. Care leavers may require more flexible approaches to life story work that they can dip in and out of at their own pace with the support of kind, consistent, and caring individuals alongside them.
6. Ownership, choice and consent are central
Life story work that is controlled by care leavers, and done at their own pace, in a method that suits them may begin to redress the balance in power sometimes felt
where care leavers have grown up with their stories recorded, produced, and held solely by other people.
7. Creative approaches and evolving formats offer safety and accessibility
Creative approaches to life story work allow care leavers to reflect on difficult or traumatic experiences in safe ways. Digital tools are being developed which allow for life story work to be more safely stored, and accessed on demand by care leavers.
8. Practitioners want to do this well, but need more support
Practitioners are motivated to support care leavers to understand themselves and their lives through life story work, but recognise a gap in training and support to enable staff at all levels to engage with this work effectively and safely.
9. There is often a gap between intention and implementation
Life story work is often included in organisational policy and strategy, and is reported on in Ofsted inspections, but very rarely is this focused on specific life story work for care leavers. Developments in practice are being led in pockets by motivated individuals and teams, rather than on any structural level across the sector.
Our exploration of these key themes is guiding our approach to years two and three of the Between Chapters project. We have devised a set of questions to further deepen our research, and will be engaging with colleagues in Local Authority, charity, creative, and policy settings. We will continue to engage with care leavers, with the goal of working towards the production of some guidance and resources to support professionals with care leavers across the country to ensure they have access to high quality, effective, and meaningful life story work at the point of need.
For further information, please visit the Between Chapters page on the Blue Cabin website.
To contact the Between Chapters Project Manager, please email freya@wearebluecabin.com.
Introduction Terminology
Young people leaving care are navigating one of the most important transitions of their lives, yet they often do so without structured support to explore their identity, make sense of their past, and imagine their future.
Life story work is a tool that can support care-experienced young people on this journey. While there are a range of established models and approaches, there remains a notable lack of life story work designed specifically with care leavers aged 16-25 in mind.
Between Chapters is a three-year project (2025-2028) led by Blue Cabin, in partnership with Mary-anne Hodd, a care-experienced independent consultant and Therapeutic Life Story Work practitioner (in training). Funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the project seeks to understand how life story work is currently understood, prioritised and delivered for care leavers, and where gaps and opportunities exist.
This report provides an update on the first year of the project, reflecting on our exploration of emerging patterns across existing resources, policy and practice reviews, and early learning from facilitated conversations. The purpose is to surface key themes, highlight areas of strength and inconsistency, and identify questions and themes that will inform the next phase of the project as we move into year two.
We recognise that the term ‘care leaver’ may not resonate with everyone, and that many people prefer the broader term ‘careexperienced’. While ‘care leaver’ remains the language used in legislation referring to young people aged 16-25 who are entitled to leaving care support, we acknowledge its limitations.
Young people themselves often challenge this language, reflecting that “we don’t leave care, care leaves us”.
For the purposes of this report, we use the term ‘care leavers’ to reflect the legal and structural context of the project, while remaining open to ongoing reflection, feedback and adaptation in how language is used.
What we mean by life story work
Life story work, within the context of this project, is understood as a therapeutic and relational process that supports children and young people to make sense of their experiences, integrate their past into a coherent narrative, and develop a stronger understanding of who they are and who they are becoming. It is not a one-off activity – it is an ongoing and continual process undertaken with care throughout the young person’s life.
While life story work has been most commonly associated with children in care and those who are adopted, its purpose can expand beyond childhood, particularly during periods of transition. This understanding is informed by Therapeutic Life Story Work (Rose, 2012; 2017), narrative identity theory, trauma-informed practice, and Blue Cabin's Creative Life Story Work approach, which adapts these principles through creative and relational practice.
Throughout our facilitated conversations and the process of digesting existing resources, it has become clear that we are not referring to life story work as a single, fixed intervention, or one universal method. Practitioners and organisations often hold different versions of what life story work is. For some, this has traditionally meant life story or "memory book" approaches, often focused on recording key events or facts, typically drawn from case files and presented to a child in written or visual format. Our conversations with care leavers also highlighted that some had experienced elements of life story work without recognising it as such, often only understanding its purpose later.
As explored by Richard Rose (2012), these traditional approaches have often been adult-led and product-focused, with life story materials created for the child rather than with them. In many cases, the primary function of these resources has been to record or retain information, which can limit opportunities for meaning-making, emotional processing and relational connection.
In contrast, therapeutic approaches to life story work, including Therapeutic Life Story Work (TLSW), Creative Life Story Work and contributions from practitioners such as Polly Baynes and Katie Wrench, position the work as collaborative and relational. Rather than focusing solely on the production of a life story resource, the emphasis is on working alongside the young person (and, where appropriate, their carers) to explore experiences, relationships, emotions and understandings over time. As Rose (2012) describes, this process supports deeper insight into the behaviours, feelings and cognitive processes that show up within the young person's lived care experiences, placing the relationship at the centre of the work.
Within this project, life story work is understood as a relational life history and storytelling: a creative, collaborative and ongoing process, led by the young person and supported by trusted adults. It supports young people to make sense of their experiences, understand their past and explore who they are becoming. For care leavers, this work may unfold through everyday relational moments, creative processes, or structured conversations, and may be revisited over time as questions emerge and readiness shifts.
While much life story work to date has focused on supporting children aged 5-17 to understand and integrate their past experiences, this project is concerned specifically with young people aged 16-25 who are navigating the transition from care into adulthood. This work invites consideration of how life story work can support care leavers not only to make sense of what has been, but also to support them to explore who they are becoming, what they hope for and how they move forward. This shared understanding of life story work provides the foundation for the summary that follows.
How this learning was shaped Acknowledgements
Our learning in the first year of this project has been developed through a process of mapping and review, drawing together existing life story work resources and approaches, relevant theory and research, reviews of Local Authority documentation and Ofsted inspection reports, and facilitated conversations with practitioners, creatives and organisations. This project focuses specifically on life story work provision for care leavers in England.
The themes outlined in this report reflect emerging patterns and tensions across this work and are intended to support shared understanding, highlight gaps and strengths, and shape the key questions that will guide the next phase of the project.
Year one of the Between Chapters project has been shaped through conversations, reflection and shared learning with a wide range of practitioners, organisations and care leavers.
We are grateful to the four care leavers from Carefree Cornwall who participated in a facilitated conversation in March 2026, generously sharing their time, experiences and reflections on life story work. Their voices have been central to shaping the learning in this report. Thank you also to the staff team at Carefree Cornwall, for co-facilitating this session and creating a safe, supportive space for these conversations to happen.
We are also thankful to Local Authority practitioners who took part in facilitated conversations, including practitioners from Northumberland County Council, Leeds City Council, South Tyneside Council and Cornwall Council.
Conversations with Virtual Memory Box contributed important perspectives on digital platforms and data ownership.
We also thank those who took part in facilitated conversations through the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation network, including colleagues from Greater Manchester Youth Network, Derby Theatre, Family Group Conferencing and Lifelong Links services, Break Therapeutic Services, and Break Charity.
Thank you also to practitioners Amy Payne and Ruth Mary Johnson for their insight, reflection and contribution to early learning.
We are grateful for the ongoing work of Blue Cabin’s Local Authority Specialist Joanne Stoddart for her extensive research and review of Local Authority Ofsted inspection reports which has been a valuable resource for this project.
This work continues to be shaped through collaboration, reflection and shared dialogue and we remain grateful to all those contributing to the ongoing learning of the Between Chapters project.
Emerging themes from the first year of Between Chapters: key considerations for life story work with care leavers
1. Life story work for care leavers looks different in different contexts
2. Identity questions do not stop at 18
3. Existing tools and approaches are largely child-focused
4. Accessing records is complex, time-consuming and emotionally demanding
5. Trust, relationships and relational continuity are key
6. Ownership, choice and consent are central
7. Creative approaches and evolving formats offer safety and accessibility
8. Practitioners want to do this well, but need more support
9. There is often a gap between intention and implementation
Theme 1: Life story work for care leavers looks different
in different contexts
The consultation sessions and conversations we had in this first year of our project reflected that there is no shared or consistent understanding of what life story work looks like for care leavers aged 16-25 in England. While life story work is widely recognised as important within children’s services, access to meaningful opportunities once a young person becomes a care leaver appears uneven and highly dependent on local context.
For some care leavers, life story work continues informally through trusted relationships with personal advisers, key workers, carers or creative practitioners. In these contexts, the work is often relational, responsive and shaped around the young person’s questions as they arise. However, this support is frequently reliant on individual commitment from supporting staff members rather than embedded structures and policy. This makes the life story work that care leavers receive vulnerable to staff changes, time pressures, service thresholds and resourcing constraints.
Where life story work does exist for care leavers, it is often described as time-limited, reactive or framed around specific processes such as accessing records, preparing for independence, or responding to a crisis. While these moments can offer valuable entry points, they may also limit the scope of the work if they are not held within a broader relational framework.
This variation highlights a central tension emerging: life story work is valued in principle, but is inconsistently prioritised in practice for care leavers. As a result, access to reflective, supportive and identity-affirming work can feel unpredictable, inconsistent, and often completely unavailable.
Conversations with charities and creative organisations highlighted that much of this work is already happening outside of statutory services. In some cases, these organisations described how life story conversations emerge naturally through creative work, drama, or therapeutic spaces, often without being explicitly labelled as life story work.
Practitioners in these settings reflected that they are already adapting their approaches and resources in response to what care leavers bring into these spaces. At the same time, many spoke about feeling uncertain in how to hold this work safely and effectively, and expressed a desire for greater support, guidance, and training.
This suggests that while important and meaningful work is already taking place in some areas, there remains a need for shared understanding and structured support for all workers who support care leavers - this includes Local Authority staff, practitioners facilitating sessions for care leavers, creative and cultural workers and workers in the voluntary and charity sectors.
This theme raises important questions about equity, continuity and how life story work is positioned within Local Authority leaving care services. It also sets the context for the themes that follow, particularly those relating to identity development, interdependence, and the need for approaches that extend beyond childhood models.
Theme 2: Identity questions do not stop at 18
By adolescence, many care-experienced young people already hold a working story about themselves, often shaped over time as a way to make sense of complex experiences, relationships and change. Life story work at this stage is not about creating a story for the first time, but perhaps about revisiting, questioning and reshaping the stories that already exist. These questions are not always linear or conscious, and may surface through relationships, transitions or moments of change rather than direct enquiry.
Across our conversations, we found that there is a shared understanding that identity work continues beyond childhood. For some care leavers, transition out of care coincides with a period when questions about identity, belonging and meaning become more pronounced. For others, this may be a time focused on living in the present rather than looking back.
Timing, readiness and living in the present:
Care leavers who took part in our consultation were clear that readiness to undertake life story work varies, and cannot be determined by age alone. As one young person reflected, “when you reach care leaver age, different questions start to emerge.” Some young people said they would not have been ready for life story work earlier in their lives, while others spoke about only recognising what life story work was in retrospect.
Practitioners and care leavers also described that many young people in their late teens and early twenties are focused on living their lives in the present, sometimes wanting distance from anything associated with care. As one Local Authority worker described, care leavers may say “I’ve lived through it, I don’t need to talk about it all again.”
This suggests that approaches to life story work at this age need to be flexible enough to meet care leavers where they are, without imposing a fixed timeline set by statutory services. Readiness cannot be prescribed, and for some, engagement with their story may come later. This raises the importance of offering life story work in ways that remain available without being imposed. Engagement may not happen at the point services expect, and may emerge later, shaped by evolving relationships, new transitions or changing circumstances.
Psychoeducation and understanding yourself:
Care leavers also spoke about the importance of understanding themselves before being expected to engage with complex or painful aspects of their story.
One young person we spoke to asked: “Why am I the way I am?”, supporting the need for psychoeducation and access to language that helps make sense of trauma, emotions and behavioural responses. Several care leavers suggested that life story work for care leavers should incorporate practical tools that support emotional literacy and self-understanding as a foundation for deeper reflection.
Reframing narratives and reducing shame:
A critical dimension of identity development during this period is the reframing of internalised narratives.
Care-experienced young people might carry difficult or limiting beliefs about themselves, shaped by systems, relationships and experiences. One young person reflected on how reaching care leaver age can come with messages such as “you have learnt wrong things” – and gave examples of being told they struggle with relationships in ways that are pathologised rather than understood within the context of their experiences.
These internal narratives are often shaped over time through experiences, relationships and the messages young people receive about themselves. Practitioners we spoke to shared practical approaches such as parts-based or internal systems thinking, which recognise that different aspects of a person’s identity may hold different experiences, emotions and beliefs.
Life story work has the potential to help care leavers reframe their internal narratives. It can support a different understanding, helping care leavers to recognise that what has happened in their lives was not their fault and to place their experiences within a wider context that isn’t based around shame.
This process is not about correcting or replacing care leaver’s stories, but about expanding them. Through supported reflection, care leavers can begin to hold multiple perspectives, recognise the impact of context and relationships and develop narratives that feel more integrated, compassionate and future-facing. This work unfolds over time and is most effective when held within trusted relationships, where complexity can be explored without judgment.
In our thinking around this theme, we see that there is no one-size-fits-all timeline for care leavers to meaningfully engage with life story work. We know that care leavers do not move from care into complete independence, but continue to rely on and build relationships around them over time. Life story work needs to sit within this context, supporting care leavers to understand themselves in relation to others, both past and present, no matter which stage they’re at.
Theme 3: Existing tools and approaches are largely child-focused
Many established approaches for children and young people aged 5-17 are designed around defined starting points, planned sequences of sessions, and clearly boundaried pieces of work.
Practitioners reflected that these approaches do not always translate well to work with care leavers aged 16-25. At this stage, care leavers may not present with a clear request, a defined question, or a readiness to engage in a structured process. Life story work may begin indirectly, emerge gradually, or be shaped around moments of transition rather than a planned programme of sessions.
In early adulthood, questions about identity, belonging or the past may surface unpredictably, alongside the practical priorities of housing, finances, relationships and education. Within this context, approaches that rely on fixed session plans or linear progression can feel misaligned with care leavers’ realities and with the relational nature of the work.
Practitioners and care leavers described the need for approaches that can adapt to this context. This might include moving between practical support and reflective conversations, holding space for emerging questions and recognising that engagement may come in moments rather than through sustained structured input.
Rather than working towards a goal of ‘completing’ life story work, the emphasis shifts towards availability, responsiveness and relational continuity. This represents a significant shift from child-focused models where life story work is often delivered within pre-agreed timeframes and with a clearer and more linear sense of progression.
Practitioners and organisations described already adapting existing resources and approaches in response to the needs of care leavers, often working beyond the limitations of traditional models - for example, running drop-in life story work surgeries in Local Authority care leaver hubs to be responsive to questions as and
when they arise for care leavers. This suggests that while gaps do exist, there is also emerging practice that can inform future development.
Our year one learning suggests that effective life story work for care leavers must align with the realities of transition, accommodating disruption, change, and evolving questions. This highlights the need for approaches that are not simply adapted from childhood practice, but intentionally designed with care leavers in mind.
Theme 4: Accessing records is complex, time-consuming and emotionally demanding
For many care leavers, their Local Authority records are expected to be a fundamental way to understand parts of their story, offering the potential for clarity, context, and detail about what happened; and why and how events unfolded over time.
However, the process of accessing records can often be lengthy and complex. Accessing Local Authority records often takes many months – in many cases over a year, and sometimes years – significantly exceeding the timeframes outlined in national guidance for subject access requests. During this period, care leavers may be left waiting without a clear understanding of what information will be shared, when it will arrive, or how it will be presented.
When care leavers do receive their records, they are often heavily redacted. Decisions about what information is withheld or disclosed are typically made by professionals who have no direct relationship with the young person or their family. This can reinforce the experience of stories being authored, filtered and controlled by others and by ‘the system’, rather than owned by the person whose life is being described.
The content of these files rarely matches care leavers’ expectations. As one practitioner described, files can be “inches thick” but filled with “random receipts from years ago, half-completed forms, and information presented with no chronological order”. Rather than providing clarity, this can create confusion, leaving care leavers trying to piece together meaning from incomplete or disconnected information.
Incomplete, conflicting and emotionally complex information:
Some care leavers we consulted with also spoke about experiences where information
provided to them through records or life story materials was incomplete, inconsistent or, at times, inaccurate.
Some people described only hearing one version of their story, or later discovering that information they had been given was inaccurate. Others spoke about confusion around what was true, particularly around fundamental parts of their history like being moved between homes or away from their birth family. Accessing their records did not help them to understand why these significant decisions had been made in their lives.
One young person described accessing their records as feeling “a bit weird”, highlighting how unfamiliar and emotionally complex it can be to revisit personal history, particularly when the information feels fragmented or unreliable.
These experiences highlight the importance of accuracy, transparency and context in how information is shared, as well as the need for support in making sense of it.
Emotional containment and supported meaning-making:
Without preparation and relational support, the journey of accessing records can feel exposing, overwhelming or destabilising.
Where support is available, accessing records can become part of a broader supported process for care leavers to reflect and explore their understanding of their lives alongside trusted practitioners, rather than as an individual exercise to seek an endpoint of ‘understanding’. Practitioners reflected on the importance of emotional containment, pacing and supported meaning-making throughout this process.
Competing priorities and readiness:
For some care leavers, accessing records becomes a central focus of their life story work. For others, it may feel less relevant, or not something they wish to engage with at all. For many care leavers, life story work may not feel like a priority in the context of immediate and pressing concerns such as housing, financial stability, or health.
Practitioners reflected that care leavers may feel uncertain about “reopening
wounds” or exploring aspects of their story when other areas of life feel unstable. This highlights the importance of responding to where young people are, and recognising that practical stability and reflective work are closely connected.
Across our conversations, there was a shared understanding that life story work involving accessing records needs to be led by the young person’s priorities. Whether records sit at the centre of the work, inform it in part, or are not engaged with at all, the process must remain responsive to what feels meaningful, manageable and safe for the individual, and must be supported by trusted practitioners who can support the care leaver to make sense of the information presented.
Theme 5: Trust, relationships and relational continuity are key
From a practice perspective, this theme raises questions about maintaining relational continuity during transitions. As statutory responsibilities shift and entitlements reduce, sustaining consistent relationships becomes more challenging. The role of trust and relationships in life story work centres on having someone who remains consistently present, can hold emotional complexity, and whom care leavers feel safe returning to when they are ready. The importance of trust and consistent relationships emerged as central across our conversations with both care leavers and practitioners.
Care leavers we spoke to emphasised that life story work can only take place within trusted relationships. As one young person explained, meaningful support requires “someone who wraps support around you” – a consistent, non-judgemental person who knows them well and is firmly on their side. This person does not necessarily need to be from Local Authority services, but could be connected to wider organisations that support them - for example via creative organisations, charities, mentors, teachers, friends etc.
At the same time, care leavers also reflected that they have already had to retell their story to multiple professionals over time. This raised important questions about what would make life story work different, and why they should trust another person with such deeply personal experiences. This highlights the tension between the need for trusted relationships and the reality of fragmented support networks that many care leavers experience.
The care leavers we spoke to also emphasised that support should not end when a life story work session ends. As one young person noted, the emotional impact of life story work conversations often hits hardest afterwards, when they are alone and processing what they have heard or shared. This points to the need for ongoing relational support that extends beyond isolated interventions.
Theme 6: Ownership, choice and consent are central
Across conversations with practitioners from Local Authorities, creative organisations, and charities, there was a shared recognition that many care-experienced young people have grown up with their stories being recorded, interpreted and stored by others. As a result, questions of power, authorship and control are particularly significant when engaging in life story work during adolescence and early adulthood.
Practitioners reflected on the need for life story work at this stage to actively rebalance this dynamic, placing the young person in control of what is explored, when it is explored, and how it is approached and recorded. This includes recognising the right not to engage, to pause, or to change direction, without this being framed as resistance or lack of readiness.
Consent in this context is an ongoing and relational process. Care leavers’ willingness to explore aspects of their story may shift over time, influenced by relationships, circumstances and emotional capacity. Approaches that remain responsive to these shifts are likely to feel safe and respectful.
Flexibility, pacing and the ability to return:
Care leavers were clear that they should be able to pause, step away, or return to conversations later without consequence. As one young person articulated, “services that cancel you if you can’t attend sessions – this should not happen with life story work.”
Care leavers spoke with clarity about experiences of other services where missing a session or struggling to engage could result in support being withdrawn or not offered again. This was described as punitive and unhelpful. Life story work, by contrast, requires patience, flexibility and the opportunity for young people to re-engage over time without penalty.
This flexibility reflects an understanding that engaging with one’s story is not linear and is not about lowering expectations or accepting disengagement. There may be periods where a young person needs to step back, or where other priorities take precedence. Holding space for this, without closing doors or removing support, is, according to young people, essential to ensuring life story work remains young person-led.
Privacy, boundaries and ownership of story:
Ownership also extends beyond decision-making about content, it includes control over privacy, boundaries and audience. Care leavers may wish to explore aspects of their story without sharing them, or to keep parts of their narrative private rather than producing a record or output. Respecting these choices is central to ethical practice and reinforces the principle that life story work should be something that happens with care leavers, rather than something done to them.
Our conversations made clear that meaningful life story work for care leavers needs to be rooted in partnership between young people and those supporting them. When care leavers experience choice, control and ongoing consent, the work is more likely to support identity development, emotional safety and a sense of agency during transition. This focus on authorship is particularly significant at a stage where care leavers are developing autonomy and a stronger sense of self.
Theme 7: Creative approaches and evolving formats offer safety and accessibility
A further theme emerging is the value of creative approaches within life story work for care leavers. Across conversations with practitioners and staff working in creative organisations with care leavers, there was a shared understanding that talking directly about personal history is not always the safest or most accessible starting point, particularly during adolescence and early adulthood.
Creative approaches and engagement:
Creative approaches, such as working with metaphor, story, objects, making, movement or other shared creative activities were described as offering a different way into reflection. Rather than requiring care leavers to speak explicitly about their own lives, these approaches allow meaning to emerge gradually, often without pressure to disclose or explain.
This can be particularly important for care leavers who have experienced repeated questioning, assessment or inquiry within Local Authority systems. Creative approaches can create emotional distance where needed, while still allowing depth, enabling care leavers to explore themes of identity, loss or belonging in ways that feel safer and more manageable.
Group-based creative work was also highlighted as offering value for some care leavers. Working alongside others can reduce intensity, normalise shared experiences and foster a sense of connection. Being part of something collective can help care leavers feel less alone in their reflections, while still retaining choice about how much they share.
While group-based approaches were highlighted by some practitioners as offering connection and shared understanding, some care leavers shared a different perspective. Some expressed that they would not want to explore their personal experiences in a group setting, emphasising the need for options which allow privacy and individual choice.
This contrast reinforces that life story work cannot follow a single model, and that approaches must remain adaptable to individual preference, comfort and context. Importantly, creativity was described not simply as an activity, but as a condition that can make deeper work possible. Playfulness, imagination and moments of joy can support regulation, build trust and create the conditions for deeper reflection over time.
Digital access and evolving formats:
Alongside creative approaches, digital platforms are increasingly shaping how life story work can be offered and accessed.
The care leavers we spoke to expressed a desire to be able to contribute to their life story work through devices they use every day, such as phones and laptops. Digital formats offer flexibility, accessibility and the ability to revisit and add to stories over time, reducing the risk of materials being lost or damaged.
Digital approaches also allow multiple voices to contribute over time, creating a more layered and evolving picture of a young person’s life. In our conversation with Virtual Memory Box, they describe home for life story work can become “a tapestry of the child’s life from multiple perspectives”, capturing both everyday moments and significant milestones.
Platforms like Virtual Memory Box can also help address practical barriers, such as digital poverty, by being web-based and accessible across different devices and settings. They offer a range of formats, including photos, videos, documents and audio, allowing young people and the adults around them to capture experiences in ways that feel natural and meaningful.
However, the move towards digital life story work also raises important ethical and practical questions.
A key question emerging from conversations is: who owns the data? When life story work is held digitally, decisions about ownership, storage and long-term access become critical. Any digital solution should clearly outline how care leavers can manage their life story work content, their privacy, and understand their future access.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the UK means that Local Authorities can keep and collect life story work data with young people up to the age of 25. After that point, local authorities are not able to provide access to a digital life story work resource for these young people. While case records are often retained for many decades, life story work does not have the same long-term protections. This raises important questions about how Local Authorities and digital platforms manage the transition of digital records from Local Authority storage to ownership and storage by individual care leavers, ready for them to access their life story work content throughout the rest of their lives.
Across this theme, year one learning highlights the importance of offering multiple pathways into life story work. Creative and digital approaches all have the potential to support accessibility, safety and engagement, but require thoughtful development to ensure they remain ethical, relational and responsive to care leavers’ needs.
Theme 8: Practitioners want to do this well, but need more support
Across year one, it has been clear that there are practitioners, organisations and charities who are deeply committed to ensuring care leavers can access support to undertake meaningful life story work. Much of the engagement within this phase of the project has come from those who already recognise its value and are actively seeking to strengthen their practice.
Practitioners consistently framed their reflections around both practical and practicebased questions. Alongside concerns about time, funding and continuity, there was a strong focus on how life story work should be approached with care leavers during adolescence and early adulthood. Earlier themes highlighted that many established models and resources do not easily translate beyond childhood, and practitioners described uncertainty about how to adapt these approaches in ways that remain ethical, flexible, meaningful, and age appropriate.
Confidence, clarity and role boundaries:
An important thread across conversations was that practitioners are ambitious about what can be achieved in life story work with care leavers, and are advocating for the development of clear guidelines, support, and training to improve clarity and quality of life story work approaches for care leavers aged 16-25.
Practitioners spoke about wanting to do this work well and asking questions such as “What can I do to support this young person?” However, many reflected that they do not always feel equipped or resourced to hold this work safely within current structures.
Our conversations included many discussions about which type of roles (within Local Authorities and other organisations supporting care leavers) are best placed to oversee access to life story work for care leavers, and which roles are best placed to support its practical delivery.
Practitioners discussed how best to balance statutory responsibilities, and the challenge of ensuring relational continuity can be maintained as roles and entitlements change. Practitioners shared their hopes that the importance of this work would be better understood, and more training and support would be on offer to help those supporting care leavers with their life story work.
The emotional weight of the work:
The emotional and ethical weight of life story work was a significant consideration for the practitioners we spoke to across Local Authorities and creative and cultural organisations.
One life story work practitioner reflected that it is difficult for even very experienced social work professionals to deliver sensitive information to care leavers about their life stories, and shared concern about the wellbeing of both staff and young people if colleagues in more junior roles are expected to have similar conversations without the adequate structured training, support, and supervision in place.
Practitioners agreed that to be able to support care leavers grappling with questions of potentially traumatic pasts, access to therapeutic training and supervision is essential to maintain the safety of care leavers and the staff teams supporting them.
The need for both specialist and relational roles:
Across our conversations, there was a growing sense that both specialist and relational roles are needed to hold this work safely.
Specialist life story workers can provide therapeutic input, consultation and oversight where appropriate. At the same time, Personal Advisors (PAs) and other trusted adults are often best placed to hold ongoing relationships and to support life story conversations within everyday interactions.
This creates a tension. Life story work should not be removed from natural relational moments, but as we know that many Local Authority PA job roles are often practicalbased roles and don’t include providing therapeutic support, it’s not appropriate to expect life story work to be delivered solely by people in these PA roles.
The challenge is creating approaches where both roles are valued and connected, allowing care leavers to benefit from both expertise and continuity.
Year one learning suggests that supporting practitioners in delivering life story work with care leavers requires more than just emphasising the importance of life story work. There is a clear need for shared language, practical guidance, and reflective support that addresses both how the work is carried out and how it can be sustained within and between existing roles in Local Authorities.
Our conversations have highlighted that life story work should not be an addon to already full job roles, but should be an intentionally planned offer that is held between professionals with therapeutic experience, and those who have built longer-term trusting relationships with individual care leavers.
Theme 9: There is often a gap between intention and implementation
Alongside practitioner reflections, year one has included a review of how life story work is referenced within Local Authority documentation and Ofsted inspection reporting narratives. This has reinforced a theme already evident across conversations: while life story work is widely recognised as important in principle, there is often limited clarity about what good practice looks like for care leavers in particular, and there are no real national benchmarking or monitoring structures in place to drive quality or consistency.
In many Local Authority contexts, life story work is included within policies, strategies or inspection reports without detailed consideration of how it should adapt beyond childhood or be sustained through adolescence and early adulthood. Blue Cabin recently completed a review of all Local Authority Ofsted inspection reports, and analysed any mention of life story work across the country. The review found that while life story work is commonly referenced, clear evidence of high-quality, embedded practice for care leavers remains limited. Where life story work for care leavers is referenced in reports, it is often broad rather than operational, offering little guidance about roles, resourcing or delivery.
Against this backdrop, there are pockets of new practice beginning to emerge to trial specific approaches for care leavers. One Local Authority described recent attempts to introduce more flexible approaches, such as drop-in sessions, intended to reduce pressure and increase accessibility. These developments reflect a willingness within services to adapt and respond to what is being learned on a local level, despite a lack of national approach or guidance for this work. Practitioners spoke about a process of testing and refining approaches, recognising that this work involves a degree of trial and error.
Structural context: age, entitlement and funding
Year one learning has also highlighted the significant impact of age-related thresholds, statutory entitlement and funding structures on care leavers’ access to life story work.
As care leavers move into early adulthood, the nature of statutory support shifts, becoming more time-limited and shaped by eligibility criteria. These changes can result in reduced contact, fewer relational touchpoints and less flexibility in how support is offered.
In this context, work that requires time, trust and emotional containment can be harder to prioritise or sustain, even where there is strong practitioner intention. Practical demands, including housing, education and financial stability, can take precedence, shaping both what is offered and what feels possible, especially when support offers are time-limited.
This highlights how system design influences practice. Without alignment between values, policy and resourcing, life story work risks remaining something that is recognised as important but difficult to sustain in everyday practice for care leavers. This structural backdrop also reinforces the importance of relational continuity and interdependence. Where formal support from Local Authorities may end as entitlement reduces, the presence of trusted relationships, creative approaches and flexible ways of working can play a critical role in supporting care leavers to continue making sense of their story during transition beyond the system age limits.
Our exploration this year has highlighted that while individual Local Authorities may have plans in place for their overall life story work provision, very few organisations have specific plans in place for life story work for care leavers. We can see pockets of good-practice starting to emerge from teams trialling new ways of engaging care leavers in tailored, age-appropriate approaches to life story work. These are not yet widespread, and we recognise that the structural context of care leavers’ entitlement to support up to the age of 25 may be preventing organisations from trialling more extensive approaches to life story work for care leavers.
Looking ahead to year two: key questions and next steps
Year one of Between Chapters has focused on exploring the current landscape in life story work support and provision for care leavers in England. Through our conversations with Local Authorities, care leavers, creative and cultural organisations, and other practitioners working with care leavers in the sector, we have mapped the existing resources and approaches, and surfaced the key themes at play within this conversation.
Rather than offering definitive answers, this phase has clarified a set of questions that will shape the focus of year two. These questions reflect the realities of practice, the diversity of care leavers’ experiences, and the need for approaches that are both meaningful and sustainable.
Throughout Year One, questions relating to race, culture, identity and intersectionality have sat within and throughout many of the themes explored, while also requiring more intentional and explicit attention moving forward.
As the work moves into Year Two, there is an important opportunity to explore how experiences of race, culture, migration, discrimination, faith, sexuality, disability and other intersecting identities shape how young people understand themselves, their relationships and their stories, and how Life Story Work for Care Leavers can respond to this meaningfully and safely.
The project has also surfaced important questions relating to kinship care. While these experiences sit within many of the wider themes explored throughout Year One, they may also require more dedicated exploration in their own right as the work develops further.
Key questions emerging from year one
• How can life story work be offered in ways that reflect the developmental needs of care leavers aged 16–25, rather than relying on models designed primarily for young people aged 5-17?
• How can life story work support care leavers to explore, question and reframe existing narratives about themselves, while respecting autonomy, consent and readiness?
• What does flexibility look like in practice when life story work for care leavers does not have a clear starting point, fixed structure or defined end point?
• How can life story work remain relational and supportive in the context of changing roles, reduced entitlement and disrupted continuity during periods of transition?
• How can approaches to life story work respond to care leavers whose engagement may be shaped by accessing records, as well as those who choose not to engage with records at all?
• What practical guidance, frameworks and reflective support do practitioners need to hold this work ethically and confidently within existing constraints?
• How might creative and indirect approaches be used more intentionally to support safety, participation and meaning-making for care leavers?
These questions represent the core areas of enquiry emerging from year one. A fuller working set of questions, capturing the wider learning and reflection that sits beneath these themes, is available on request.
Next steps
Year two of Between Chapters will build on this foundation, continuing to deepen conversations and extend engagement with care leavers, practitioners, creatives and organisations.
The focus will be on developing and testing approaches that:
• Are shaped with care leavers rather than adapted for them
• Acknowledge structural and systemic realities without being driven by them
• Support interdependence, relational continuity and identity development
• Offer practical, flexible ways forward for practice
This next phase will prioritise creating spaces for shared learning, reflection and co-creation, ensuring that future outputs remain grounded in lived experience, ethical practice and the realities of transition.
Year one has highlighted both the appetite and the need for this work. Year two offers an opportunity to respond thoughtfully, building approaches that support care leavers to make sense of their story in ways that feel safe, meaningful and led by them.
Rose, R. (2012). Life Story Therapy with Traumatised Children: A Model for Practice. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Rose, R. (2017). Therapeutic Life Story Work: Working with Children Who Have Been Traumatised. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
McAdams, D. P. (2001). The psychology of life stories. Review of General Psychology, 5(2), 100–122.
Blue Cabin. Creative Life Story Work (www.creativelifestorywork.com)
Practice-led insights and emerging approaches within the life story work field, including contributions from Polly Baynes and Katie Wrench.
This project is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
