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Partnership with WWEICSC

Two projects with What Works for Early Intervention & Children’s Social Care: Care Leavers’ Emotional Wellbeing (CLEW) and Staying Close

Project overview

McPin is partnering with What Works for Early Intervention & Children’s Social Care (WWEICSC) to provide peer research input on two evaluation projects – the Care Leavers Emotional Wellbeing project and the Staying Close project. 

CLEW: WWEICSC is keen to find out how local authorities provide for care leavers’ wellbeing and mental health needs, and how they facilitate access to appropriate support. 

Staying Close: The programme aims to provide safe accommodation to help young people leaving care develop confidence, skills for independent living, and improve emotional health and wellbeing. WWEICSC is keen to understand the nature of relevant provision across local authorities in England, including how care leavers experience this. 

McPin is training, recruiting, and supporting peer researchers with relevant lived experiences to conduct interviews with participants in both projects.  

Project details

Care leavers are more likely to experience poor mental health than their peers.

This may result from the abusive, neglectful, or traumatic experiences that led them to enter care.

It may also be compounded by the instability of the care environment.

McPin is conducting peer research interviews as part of the evaluations. 

This involves training and recruiting peer researchers, and supporting them to conduct and analyse interviews. 

The partnership with WWEICSC is for a 12-month period, running from Autumn 2022 to Autumn 2023. 

For more information on the project, please email [email protected].

For more information about WWEICSC please visit their website.

You can also read a blog from one of the project’s peer researchers: Navigating power dynamics in peer research

And read the report: Care leavers’ experiences of emotional wellbeing support while leaving care

Work with us

We are always excited to hear from others who want to collaborate on mental health research. From delivering peer research to helping you with public involvement strategies and providing training, get in touch to chat.