Clare Holdsworth - The Churchill Fellowship
The Churchill Fellowship
become a fellow

Fellow's Profile

Clare Holdsworth

Fellow's Profile

Clare Holdsworth

Employing care experienced young people in voice, influence, and change

Fellowship

Themes
Focus

Showing how to employ young people with care experience to do voice, influence, and change work

Countries
Fellowship year

2025

Supported by
Locality

North East

Contact

Biography

I manage a team of care-experienced voice and influence workers in Sheffield City Council. As a team we run voice youth groups for others in care, complete creative peer research, run a reverse scrutiny process where we hold Children's Social Care to account and have our own podcast. My Fellowship will focus on creating a best practice model to create paid employment for young people with care experience to do impactful voice, influence and change work.

I have worked for many years in advocacy and youth voice work. I am passionate about meaningful co-production that enables the young people involved to have a career pathway from volunteering to paid work. I have helped young people go from volunteering in their Children in Care Council to being paid to run it themselves. I would like to strengthen the model we have in Sheffield, then create a set of resources to demonstrate to other local authorities how they too can set up their own voice and influence teams. My long-term goal is to make paid routes into voice and influence employment for young people with care experience a statutory ask of all local authorities and provide the best practice model to do so.

Activity

editorial

Following curiosity towards lasting change

Following her Fellowship across Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, Clare Holdsworth reflects on how paid lived-experience roles can support care-experienced young people to shape services, policy, and practice. Drawing on conversations with organisations, professionals, and young people, she explores what it takes to make these roles psychologically safe, meaningful, and supportive of long-term careers. She is now sharing this learning in Sheffield, using curiosity as a way to ask better questions with young people, not just about them.

By Clare Holdsworth, 18 June 2026

Acknowledgements

Dr Claire Baker Coram Voice; CREATE Foundation Australia; OPEN Outcomes, Practices and Evidence Network Dr Mandy Charman and team; VOYCE NZ; McCreary Centre Society

Disclaimer

All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.

Activity

editorial

Following curiosity towards lasting change

Following her Fellowship across Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, Clare Holdsworth reflects on how paid lived-experience roles can support care-experienced young people to shape services, policy, and practice. Drawing on conversations with organisations, professionals, and young people, she explores what it takes to make these roles psychologically safe, meaningful, and supportive of long-term careers. She is now sharing this learning in Sheffield, using curiosity as a way to ask better questions with young people, not just about them.

By Clare Holdsworth, 18 June 2026

Acknowledgements

Dr Claire Baker Coram Voice; CREATE Foundation Australia; OPEN Outcomes, Practices and Evidence Network Dr Mandy Charman and team; VOYCE NZ; McCreary Centre Society

Disclaimer

All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.

Contact this fellow

Fellow contact

Related

Newsletter Sign Up