For International Women’s Day this year, Research and Policy Student Intern, Kate, shares her reflections on support for care-experienced young mothers in England.
In May 2025, I worked alongside Phoebe White from the National Youth Advocacy Service, as part of the Interchange Programme at the University of Liverpool, producing a report that investigated the current support available to care-experienced young mothers in England, and how effective it was in reducing stigma and increasing support. Interchange is a research programme that links higher education students with voluntary and community organisations to produce social research projects.
Throughout the research process, I spoke with both care-experienced young mothers and service workers through questionnaires and interviews to collect data on their experiences with the support available in England. My research suggested there were multiple gaps in the support available to care-experienced young mothers in England, and a clear pattern of unequal access to help was evident.
In particular, the research highlighted national inconsistencies in local offers, mental health services and housing support. When discussing local offers with participants, one individual noted “you might get driving lessons in one place, but you might not in another”, and another used the phrase “postcode lottery” in reference to the lack of consistency in support depending on which local authority a young woman lives in.
The findings revealed that the support available did not consider the specific challenges care-experienced young mothers face and how this may need to be adjusted to meet need. Positive aspects of policy and support were highlighted, in the form of the Family Nurse Partnership in some Local Authorities and the introduction of Personal Assistants in 2017 – however, I concluded the support was not consistent nationally. The two main areas required for improvement were;
- Funding constraints
- Without national mandatory data collection on care-experienced young mothers in England, it is more challenging to identify gaps in service provision, creating difficulties in securing funding.
- Access to funding also impacts on training for internal and external agencies.
- Funding constraints also impact on how national consistencies in local offers can be achieved.
- Systematic issues
- The inaccessibility of childcare creates barriers to employment and education access
- Mental health services do not accommodate for the specific needs of care-experienced young mothers, and specialised care is not available 24/7
- The current housing support system does not account for the long term, such as a young person's situation changing when they have children. Local authorities need to take steps to try and keep families together and local when seeking housing support.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time working alongside Phoebe and NYAS when completing the Interchange project. The project gave me the opportunity to investigate an important topic and allowed me to be a part of the wider movement of driving policy change for care-experienced Young People. Once my project was completed, I shared my findings at a presentation hosted by the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum in October, which centred around supporting care-experienced parents, and how research and policy analysis can be used to promote positive practice. I have been grateful for my experience so far with NYAS, and I am excited to see what the future holds for further research and policy change in this area.
Looking forward, NYAS was thrilled to announce that, alongside charity Birth Companions, they will be leading a national inquiry through the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Care-Experienced Children and Young People into intergenerational cycles of care proceedings in England. More information about the inquiry and how to get involved will be available on our website soon.
Kate’s full report can be read here. Please contact [email protected] if you are a student interested in internship opportunities at NYAS.
