As part of the Confidence in Care research, Alyson Rees and colleagues are also undertaking a discrete feasibility study to be completed by May 2016. This will be considering the practicalities of running a skills and mentoring programme in Wales. The programme is entitled ‘Fostering Healthy Futures’, and has been developed in Colorado for young people in foster care (age 9-11); the scheme in the USA has social work students providing the mentoring and has been rigorously evaluated over a ten year period. It is a preventative, strengths based approach. Alyson has held one consultation event so far. The team will be contacting heads of children’s services and staff in fostering teams and arranging to meet with them to gather their views. The researchers will also be meeting with young people who have experience of being in care, foster carers and higher education providers. They will also need to gather data on the numbers of young people age 9-11 in foster care in each local authority Alyson Rees and a colleague will be visiting Colorado in July 2015 to find out about the mechanics of the programme and the systems within which it sits. Staff from the programme in the USA will be visiting Wales in early 2016.
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Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre