Care Leavers - Your relationships

Through Lifelong Links you will be supported to have positive and lasting relationships with the people who matter to you. Lifelong links can help you to reconnect with family members and other trusted adults in a safe and supportive way. This could be people you already know, people you haven’t seen for a while, or relatives you have never met, if we feel this is in your best interests.

An independent Lifelong Links coordinator will support you to enable you to learn about your family history and talk to you about who you want to build relationships with. They can also help you to understand your family tree, where you have lived and where you have been to school.

As part of lifelong links, they may be able to offer a ‘support network’ get together, where they will try to get together all the people who are, or have been, important to you, to see how they can help and support you. They will, on your behalf, contact the people you identify and see if they are willing to be part of a support plan for you. This is called the Family Group Conference.

Things to remember: 

• You need to be a child or young person in care or leaving care.
• Lifelong Links does not look to place you with anyone found through the process.
• Family Group Conference is not always about family. It can be anyone who is important to you who is willing to provide support, and can include people such as teachers, previous foster carers and even previous social workers.

• If you have any questions about lifelong links you can contact the team at: LifelongLinks@LLL.com 

The Family Group Conferencing Team can also support you and your family in finding your own solutions to any difficulties you are facing and make a plan that meets your needs. Your social worker or support worker will discuss with you and your parents or carers the benefits of having a Family Group Conference and whether this is something you would all like to try. If you decide to go ahead with a Family Group Conference the coordinator will contact you to discuss how you would like to contribute to the meeting. The coordinator is independent from the social work team and their aim is to make sure that you are fully involved in the meeting and that your wishes and feelings are always the priority.

Things to remember

• Family Group Conferences are optional and you can change your mind at any time if you decide you do not want to go ahead.
• This is your meeting and is led by you and your family and not by professionals.
• A follow-up meeting called a Review can happen to give you and your family a chance to celebrate successes and to decide if any further changes need to be made.
• If you have any questions about family group conference, you can contact the team manager at: melanie.davidson@dcstrust.co.uk

Pause Doncaster works with women who have experienced or are at risk of, repeated pregnancies that result in children being removed from their care. Pause is a service that supports women who no longer have their children in their care. Their aim is to enable women to take a ‘pause’ from pregnancy and further court proceedings, allowing them to focus on themselves and to make positive choices and changes in their life.

Pause works with women who:

• Live in Doncaster
• Have had one child removed and are either a Care Leaver or aged under 19
• OR: Have had two or more children removed
• Are likely to become pregnant again
• Have had a pregnancy or care proceedings within the last 5 years
• Do not have children in their care and are not currently pregnant

If you need this service you will be supported by a Pause Practitioner who will spend time getting to know you and building up a trusting relationship with you for up to 18 months.

Pause understands that every woman is different; therefore, they ensure that their programme is designed to meet your needs. Their work with you can take place at home or in the community; or where you feel most comfortable.

Read more about Pause

Things to remember:

• Pause is not able to support women to get their children back
• Pause is not a parenting program
• Pause is all about you, so you can take control and focus on the things that are important to you!
• It isn’t always going to be easy. There will be challenges along the way, but we will be there to help you to focus on your goals and work towards a more positive future.