Bristol DfE Care Leavers

Helping care leavers who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) to live independent and fulfilling lives.

  • Location

    Bristol

  • Launch

    Nov 2018

  • Area

    Education, Employment & Housing

Collaborators & funding partners

  • Reboot West

  • Department for Education

  • Bristol City Council

  • North Somerset Council

  • Bath & North East Somerset Council

  • South Gloucestershire Council

Delivery Partners

  • 1625 Independent People

Team

Collaborators & funding partners

  • Reboot West

  • Department for Education

  • Bristol City Council

  • North Somerset Council

  • Bath & North East Somerset Council

  • South Gloucestershire Council

Delivery Partners

  • 1625 Independent People

  • Andrew is Co-Founder of Bridges Outcomes Partnerships and Executive Director of Operations, Innovation and Learning. He is a Director of Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership, GM Homes Partnership, Homelessness Support, the Single Homeless Prevention Service and is a Trustee of West London Zone.

    Prior to Bridges, Andrew was Managing Director of a social enterprise “Baobab” in Madagascar, and a non-Executive board member of two other financial inclusion social enterprises, in Senegal and China.

  • Iciar Ania, Executive Director at Bridges Outcomes Partnerships, has been working with Bridges for the last 6 years, during which time she has designed and implemented more than 10 Outcomes Partnerships related to:

    • Supporting care experienced young people to access employment and education opportunities,
    • Supporting young people with their mental health and wellbeing,
    • Helping families stay together through family therapy,
    • Supporting vulnerable women at risk of multiple removals and/or sexual harm and violence, and
    • Supporting unpaid carers to improve their wellbeing and sustain their caring role.

    Prior to joining Bridges Outcomes Partnerships, Iciar worked in Investment Banking at Arcano Group and Nomura Group. Iciar also spent 2 years in Cambodia working for a charity that supports families of people with physical and intellectual disabilities.

    Iciar holds a Bachelor of Science from Northeastern University in the USA and from ICADE in Spain and an MBA from INSEAD.

  • Steve’s role as Programme Director, is to provide capacity building and programme and performance management to a portfolio of socially-minded organisations. These organisations deliver innovative solutions to prevent and relieve homelessness and increase the education and employment prospects of young people, using an outcomes-based approach.

    Steve holds a BEng in Civil and Structural Engineering from the University of Sheffield and after a brief career in Engineering spent 20 years growing a business supporting long term unemployed and people with disabilities and health problems develop skills and employment to live independently through outcomes-based contracting.

Overview

Reboot West believes that life outcomes for care leavers can significantly improve by supporting them in their transition out of the care system.

Reboot West, which is delivered by 1625 Independent People, runs a four-year support programme for care leavers aged 16+ who are NEET (not in education, employment or training) or are risk of becoming NEET.

The programme employs coaches who work with care leavers for up to four years, using approaches informed by the Acceptance & Commitment Therapy model. This involves helping young people to identify the things that are most important to them, enabling them to progress into work or training and live more fulfilling lives.

Reboot West has worked with 230+ care leavers over four years across Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, helping them into (and to sustain) education, employment and training opportunities while fostering their stability, wellbeing and aspirations.

BOP partnered with 1625 Independent People, a leading voluntary sector provider of services to young people leaving care and at risk of homelessness in the South West, to deliver the programme.

Delivery innovations

An outcomes partnership has enabled a much more collaborative, flexible approach to problem-solving. This has facilitated a number of significant delivery innovations, including:

  • An ‘asset-based’ approach, focusing on a young person’s strengths and values rather than their needs.
  • Ongoing data management, to help coaches understand how young people are responding to and progressing with the support.
  • Developing close working relationships between Reboot West Coaches and the Local Authority personal advisers was essential in keeping in close contact with young people during the pandemic.
  • Young people participation boards that give young people engaged on the programme an opportunity to shape and design the support they need to succeed.
  • Internal and external grants supported young people with laptops, tablets and data packages over the pandemic, helping maintain their engagement with Reboot West and enable online access to education and employment opportunities.

Outcomes

Reboot West aims to support care leavers into and to sustain education, training and employment opportunities while fostering their stability and well-being.

  • 237

    Starts to the programme

  • 131

    Entered into employment

  • 146

    Entered into education/training course

  • £2.2m

    Outcomes achieved