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Through a new project called Between Chapters, Blue Cabin is exploring the provision of life story work for care leavers aged 16 to 25.
Independent consultant and trainer, Mary-anne Hodd, who is part of the Between Chapters team, shares a snapshot of nine themes that have emerged so far, through conversations with practitioners, creatives and organisations, and from a review of life story work provision across local authorities.
As we suspected, it is becoming clear that there is no shared understanding of what life story work looks like for care leavers aged 16-25, and access to it often depends on geography, local priorities and resources, or individual practitioner confidence and skills. For some care leavers, opportunities to revisit their story might no longer exist once they leave children’s services, despite this being a time when identity questions often intensify.
Where life story work does exist for this age group, it is often informal, time-limited, or dependent on individual relationships rather than embedded in practice.
Across our conversations, there is a shared understanding that identity work does not end at 18.
Early adulthood is often a time when care-experienced young people are revisiting their stories, interpreting them in new ways, and asking what those stories mean for who they are becoming. This happens alongside significant transitions around housing, education, work and relationships.
Many organisations are increasingly recognising the importance of interdependence, ongoing relationships and relational continuity, rather than expecting care leavers to become fully independent overnight. This shift aligns closely with the purpose of life story work, which supports reflection, connection and meaning-making over time.
What we’re hearing is that life story work can be particularly valuable during these years, not as a one-off intervention, but as something that supports care leavers to make sense of themselves during change.
Another theme emerging is that many life story work resources are still designed with younger children aged 5-17 in mind.
These tools often rely on formats, language or activities that don’t always translate well to adolescents or young adults. While they may be appropriate for some, others can feel overly simplistic, restrictive, or disconnected from the questions care leavers are grappling with.
There is a growing sense that life story work for care leavers needs to feel age-appropriate, respectful and collaborative, rather than something done to or for them. This includes flexibility in how, when and whether young people engage, and recognition that their priorities and questions may look very different from those of younger children.
For many care-experienced young adults, records hold important pieces of their story. They can offer answers, context and clarity about what happened and why. At the same time, the process of accessing these records can be complex, slow and emotionally demanding.
We’re hearing about the challenges of navigating requests, waiting periods, redactions and incomplete information, often with limited support to prepare for or make sense of what is found. For some, records arrive heavily redacted or fragmented, raising further questions rather than providing resolution. For others, the emotional impact of reading files written about them, rather than with them, can be significant.
At the same time, emerging conversations remind us that not all care leavers choose to access their records or feel ready to do so. For some, the decision to delay or avoid records is a protective and considered choice. This highlights the importance of life story work approaches that can support understanding, identity and meaning-making, whether or not records are accessed.
This raises important questions about emotional containment, choice, pacing and support, particularly for care leavers navigating this process in early adulthood.
Emerging conversations have also highlighted the importance of psychoeducation and supported meaning-making in this space. This includes supporting young people to understand not only what is written in their records, but how early adversity, loss and disrupted care can shape development, behaviour and emotional responses over time.
Young people have been clear that life story work can only happen within trusted relationships. As one young person described, meaningful support requires “someone who wraps support around you”- a consistent person who knows them, is on their side and is not judging.
At the same time, young people reflected that they have often had to retell their story to multiple professionals over time. This raises important questions about what makes life story work different, and why they should trust another person with deeply personal experiences.
Young people also emphasised that support should not end when a session ends. The emotional impact of life story work conversations often hits hardest afterwards, when they are alone, processing what they have heard or shared. This points to the need for ongoing relational support that extends beyond isolated interventions.
From a practice perspective, maintaining consistent relationships becomes more complex as statutory responsibility changes and entitlements reduce during transition. The role of trust and relationships in life story work is about having someone who remains present over time, who can hold emotional complexity, and who young people feel safe to return to when they are ready.
A consistent theme is the importance of narrative ownership.
A common experience of being a care leaver is that their stories might often be written, stored and interpreted by others. Effective life story work at this age needs to actively rebalance that, placing control back with the young person.
What we’re hearing is the importance of choice about what is explored and when, respect for privacy (including the right not to share), permission to engage indirectly or creatively, and freedom from pressure to disclose personal experiences.
For many, safety comes from knowing they are in control of their story, rather than feeling it is something they are expected to perform or complete.
Across conversations, creative methods were repeatedly described as powerful. Rather than asking young people to talk directly about their lives, approaches that use metaphor, play, making, character, story or group activity can allow reflection without exposure.
Group-based creative work has been highlighted as particularly valuable, offering shared experience, reduced pressure, and a sense of ‘being in it together’.
Joy, playfulness and creativity are not seen as distractions from serious work, but essential conditions for it.
Care Leavers have also told us about wanting high-quality digital tools to access and contribute to their life story work directly from their own devices. 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. There is work being done across the sector by platforms such as Virtual Memory Box to ensure that the ownership of that data is placed with the local authority, and then with the care leaver as an individual once they turn 25.
Practitioners spoke openly about wanting to do the work well, but often feeling underprepared, underresourced or unsure. Common reflections included uncertainty about pacing, anxiety about “getting it wrong”, limited training specific to care leavers, and a lack of reflective space or supervision.
There is a clear appetite for guidance, shared learning and resources that feel realistic, grounded and supportive, rather than prescriptive.
Alongside conversations, year one of Between Chapters has also included a piece of local authority mapping, reviewing how life story work appears in recent Ofsted inspection reports.
This has reinforced a tension we’re hearing elsewhere: life story work is often recognised as important in principle, but there is limited clarity about what good practice looks like for care leavers, how it should adapt beyond childhood, or how practitioners are supported to deliver it.
In some places, there is thoughtful, relational practice to celebrate. In others, life story work appears more procedural, with limited reference to identity, meaning-making or emotional containment. References to life story work continuing into leaving care are relatively rare.
Across these themes, we’re becoming increasingly curious about the ‘how’ – how life story work can be offered in ways that are meaningful, flexible and realistic for care leavers, and how this fits within the realities of practice, resources and roles.
The next phase of Between Chapters will be shaped by the following questions:
These questions will help ensure that what comes next is grounded not only in hope and creativity, but in the realities that practitioners and care leavers are navigating every day. These reflections are just the beginning. As Between Chapters continues, we’re committed to listening, learning and holding this work with care.
We’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who has shared their time, thinking and experience with us so far as part of Year One of Between Chapters.
In particular, we’re grateful to practitioners who took part in facilitated conversations through the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Learning Network, including colleagues from Greater Manchester Youth Network, Derby Theatre, Family Group Conferencing and Lifelong Links services, Break Therapeutic Services, and Break Charity.
We are grateful to the four care leavers from Carefree Cornwall who generously shared their time, experiences and reflections on life story work with us. 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.
Thanks also go to Local Authority 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.
Thank you also to practitioners Amy Payne and Ruth Mary Johnson for their insight, reflection and contribution to early learning.
This work is being shaped through shared learning and collective reflection, and we remain grateful to everyone who is contributing, or planning to contribute, to these ongoing conversations.
As Between Chapters moves into Year Two, the focus will shift from mapping and listening towards deeper exploration and development. The questions emerging from Year One will guide this next phase, helping us to test ideas, explore what meaningful life story work can look like for care leavers in practice, and identify where new tools, resources or approaches may be most helpful.
Year Two will involve further conversations with care-experienced young people and practitioners, alongside focused work to explore how life story work can support identity, meaning-making and understanding during transition into adulthood. This will include attention to creativity, relational approaches, psychoeducation, and the practical realities of delivering this work within existing systems and roles. Learning from this phase will begin to shape the development of resources and guidance designed specifically with care leavers aged 16–25 in mind.
Thank you Mary-anne for sharing this update.
Get involved in Between Chapters
If you’re interested in contributing to future conversations about life story work for care leavers, or sharing your experiences, please complete our Expression of Interest form here.
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