Building bonds: using relational practice to empower care experienced students
By Katie Ball, Outcomes Officer at Luminate Education Group
At Luminate Education Group, we use the term ‘care experienced’ to mean Children Looked After or young people who have previously been looked after. This includes care leavers, those under ‘special guardianship’ or other orders, or young people who are adopted.
While all students across our further education (FE) colleges have access to pastoral support, young people who have experience of the care system will often need extra support to make sure they achieve their full potential.
For the educators involved in providing this support, relational practice is seen as an effective approach because of how it places relationships at the heart of the learning experience.
Here are some examples of our work on relational practice and supporting students who are care experienced:
Trauma-informed training
“…colleagues […] understand the benefits of taking a relational approach…”
In October 2023, we ran a staff development day for over 1,500 staff in our FE provision called ‘Relationships and belonging: an antidote to trauma’.
The aim of this day was to provide our colleagues with a better understanding of trauma-informed practice and the benefits of taking a relational approach with students and staff.
The training day enabled teaching and non-teaching staff to gain deeper insight into how they can use the practice of building and maintaining healthy relationships to help our learners feel safe emotionally.
Embedding it in our culture
“We recently created a new ‘care experienced students policy'”
Trauma informed practice is now one of the strategic priorities at Luminate Education Group and following this, the group has developed a Trauma Informed Practice Strategy for 2024-2027, to ensure that this work continues to be a focus.
Our behaviour policy was also reviewed and updated to focus on relational practices, ensuring that the needs of vulnerable students continue to be met.
We recently created a new ‘Care Experienced Students Policy,’ which will be launched in August 2024. The purpose of the policy is to outline the support that the colleges will provide to care experienced students and the work it will carry out to promote the outcomes of this group of young people.
Working in partnership
“…”two dedicated members of staff […] support students who are children looked after…”
Every year, the team ensures that care-experienced young people receive an enhanced transition, and are supported during their studies. Leeds City College has a long-established relationship with Leeds City Council’s Virtual School team, which supports the educational attainment of all children looked after and care leavers aged between 0 and 25.
The college has two dedicated members of staff in the Student Life team who support students who are Children Looked After, Previously Looked After and Care Leavers. Their commitment ensures that every care-experienced student receives the guidance and support they need to thrive academically and personally. Ours is an organisation fully invested in this.
What do students say?
“I felt that college staff understood my individual situation and provided the support I needed.”
“I felt grateful and relieved as the support reduced my financial stress and allowed me to focus on my studies.”
Luminate Education Group is a collective of education providers based in Yorkshire with one clear purpose: to make a positive difference to people’s lives through genuinely transformative education and training. It consists of Leeds City College, Leeds Sixth Form College, University Centre Leeds, Keighley College, Harrogate College, Leeds Conservatoire and the Yorkshire Centre for Training and Development. It has around 30,000 students and over 2,000 members of staff.
