Rethinking what it means to grow up in care

New research from the University of Sheffield is challenging assumptions about care experience, from accessing higher education to becoming a parent, and calling for support that recognises people's potential rather than defining them by their past.

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Research led by Dr Katie Ellis is helping to reshape how universities support care-experienced students, with many of its recommendations now embedded across the higher education sector.
The research contributed to a sector-wide shift towards the broader term 'care experience', helping more students access support at university.
A new study is also challenging assumptions about care-experienced parents, highlighting the need for support without stigma or judgement.

For young people who have been unable to live with their parents and have grown up in care, the transition to adulthood can bring challenges that many of their peers never have to consider. Finding somewhere to live, managing finances and navigating unfamiliar systems can all become more difficult without a reliable family network to fall back on.

Yet the stories told about care experience often go further, focusing on disadvantage and poor outcomes in ways that can overshadow people's achievements, ambitions and everyday lives.

For Dr Katie Ellis, Senior Lecturer in Child Welfare at the University of Sheffield, changing that narrative has been central to her research.

Through two projects funded by the Leverhulme Trust, Pathways to University from Care and Everyday Parenting with Care Experience, she is exploring how people with care experience can be better supported to achieve their ambitions and build fulfilling lives.

Opening up the path to university

When Dr Ellis began researching higher education and care experience in 2012, much of the discussion focused on poor outcomes. At the time, it was estimated that only six per cent of care leavers went on to university.

Rather than concentrating on why so few young people made that transition, she wanted to understand the experiences of those who did.

“Research describing care leavers always seemed to focus on negative outcomes, which can be really stigmatising. It actively harms young people in care and reinforces the low expectations that others place on them” explains Dr Ellis.

The resulting Pathways to University from Care project brought together the experiences of 234 care experienced students from across England and Wales. The research explored the factors that could help care-experienced young people reach university, settle into student life and achieve their potential once there.

“Participants involved in the study described disrupted schooling, low expectations from some of the professionals supporting them. Many were reluctant to disclose their care background when applying to university because they worried admissions teams would judge them negatively” explains Dr Ellis.

The research also found that support was often difficult to access. Some universities offered help inconsistently, while eligibility criteria could exclude students whose experiences did not fit the formal definition of a care leaver.

“For some, the consequences were significant. One student recalled spending their first weeks at university isolated in their room while waiting for financial support to arrive, missing out on opportunities to make friends and settle into university life” adds Dr Ellis.

The findings confirmed that getting through the admissions process was only one part of the challenge. Students also needed practical, financial and emotional support that continued once they arrived.

Turning research into change

The Pathways to University from Care policy report was published in 2019 and made 15 recommendations for universities, covering everything from admissions and financial assistance to accommodation and the appointment of a dedicated member of staff to support care-experienced students.

Five years later, Dr Ellis and colleagues revisited the research in a follow up study and found that many of the changes called for had been adopted across the sector, helping to improve support for care-experienced students.

After the Care Leaver Covenant championed the 2019 recommendations, 118 universities signed up to adopt them in full. The Office for Students has also included care experience in its Equality of Opportunity Risk Register, bringing greater attention to the barriers these students face.

One of the most significant outcomes of the research has been the sector-wide shift towards using the term care experience.

Previously, support was often available only to young people who were in care on or around their 16th birthday. Adopting the broader definition of ‘care experience’ has helped remove this ‘technical loophole’, recognising that the impact of care can be lifelong.
Dr Katie Ellis
Senior Lecturer in Child Welfare at the University of Sheffield

Work with UCAS also addressed one of the barriers highlighted by participants - the fear of disclosing a care background during the application process.

"People were very nervous about disclosing their care status. Working with UCAS helped clarify why care information is collected. UCAS now encourages new students to ‘tick the box’ so that their universities can offer support once they become a student. The number of students sharing their care status at the point of application has more than doubled” adds Dr Ellis.

The research also shone a light on a less visible issue - the gap between finishing school and starting university. Some young people turn 18 while studying for their A-levels and may be required to leave care before beginning university months later.

"We found that some students were homeless during the summer before attending university. Sharing those experiences prompted universities to rethink their support. Some institutions now allow students to move into university accommodation early, helping to ensure they have somewhere safe to live before term begins” explains Dr Ellis.

Participants also spoke about the opportunities university provided. Many described finding like-minded friends, gaining independence and feeling part of a community for the first time.

“The goal is simple - to ensure that students with care experience have the support they need to get the most out of their university experience and enjoy the same opportunities as their peers” adds Dr Ellis.

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What happens after care?

The questions raised by Pathways to University from Care do not end at graduation. More recent research by Dr Ellis and Research Associate Dr Shirley Lewis turns to another important stage of life: becoming a parent.

The Everyday Parenting with Care Experience project explores the experiences of parents who grew up in care but are often missing from research and statistics about care leavers.

As with higher education, research and public discussion frequently concentrate on difficulties experienced by care leavers, while the lives of the majority receive far less attention.

There is an assumption that having grown up in care means a person's own children are more likely to enter care. For Dr Ellis, this makes it particularly important to hear from parents whose everyday experiences challenge that expectation.

“I know some brilliant care-experienced parents, and wanted to share their stories, to raise awareness and to show that having a difficult start does not mean that you will not be a good parent” explains Dr Ellis.

The project is building an account of parenthood that includes the ordinary moments often absent from research.

“Interviews with care-experienced mothers and fathers have highlighted both the joys and challenges of raising children. Participants spoke about their love for their children and the pride they take in watching them grow, while also reflecting on the additional pressures that can come with parenting without wider family support networks” adds Dr Ellis.

Participants also spoke about juggling childcare with the need for a break, and about the pressure, particularly among mothers, to be the perfect parent.

These accounts do not suggest that parenting is without difficulty. Instead, they show why the experiences of care-experienced parents need to be understood in their own right, rather than interpreted through assumptions about their childhoods.

When asking for help creates another problem

The findings from the Everyday Parenting with Care Experience project have now been published in a new report, which found that more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of participating parents had experienced discrimination from healthcare professionals.

Dr Ellis describes cases in which routine interactions with support services have led to unintended consequences.

In one example, a father was asked whether he had previously been involved with children's social care. The question was intended to establish whether he had posed a risk to any of his children. But because he had been in care himself, he had extensive contact with children's social care as a child.

His history of involvement with social care was therefore not evidence that he posed a risk to his own children, yet the wording of the question risked creating precisely that misunderstanding.

The project highlights the importance of how professionals gather and interpret information.

“Improving practice means encouraging professionals to think more carefully about the questions they ask, what they are intended to establish and how the answers might be interpreted. It also means recognising the distinction between a person's experience of care and their capacity to provide safe, loving care for their own children” adds Dr Ellis.

Support without stigma

The research is still developing, but its implications for services are already clear. Care-experienced parents may benefit from additional support, particularly when they are young or lack a wider network of family and friends. The challenge is to make that support available without making people feel that their background has placed them under suspicion.

Dr Ellis would like to see more opportunities for peer support, parent mentors and community-based groups, alongside accessible routes to early help. Enhanced health visiting, for example, could provide parents who lack an established support network with someone to turn to for advice and reassurance.

These approaches would offer practical help without assuming that a parent is struggling simply because they grew up in care.

The findings also point to a broader issue in the way services use information. Assumptions about risk can reinforce stigma, making parents reluctant to speak openly about their experiences or ask for help when they need it.

A more supportive approach would recognise that care experience can shape people's lives in different ways, without treating it as a fixed prediction of what will happen next.

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Looking ahead

Although the two projects focus on different stages of life, they share a common purpose. Both ask what becomes possible when care-experienced people are given the chance to describe their own experiences, rather than being defined by statistics about disadvantage.

There is still work to do - Dr Ellis wants national guidance for universities to be strengthened so that care-experienced students receive more consistent support, regardless of where they study or whether they fit a particular legal definition. She also wants higher education institutions to collect better data on retention, withdrawal and graduation, making it possible to understand which approaches are working and where further change is needed.

In parenting services, the priority is to make support more accessible while challenging the assumption that care experience should automatically trigger concern.

Ultimately, the ambition is not to replace negative stereotypes with an equally simplistic picture in which everyone succeeds without difficulty. It is to tell a fuller story - one that acknowledges real barriers and inequalities while also recognising achievements, relationships and potential.

Acknowledgements

“This research would not have been possible without the invaluable contributions of people with care experience, who have worked alongside us throughout both projects. Their insights, expertise and lived experiences have helped shape the research at every stage, challenging assumptions about care experience and influencing how the topic is understood and discussed within higher education and beyond”.

“We are grateful to all those who took part in the research, shared their experiences, and contributed to the co-production of the projects. Their involvement has been central to developing recommendations, informing the research direction, and ensuring the work reflects the realities of those with lived experience of care” - Dr Katie Ellis.

Connect with Dr Ellis on LinkedIn