Al Coates (CF 2024) presented at The NVR Global Conference, sharing learning from his work with adoptive parents experiencing challenging and aggressive behaviour from their children.
By Al Coates, 2026
Children in care
About this theme
This theme covers topics relating to improving the lives and outcomes of children and young people with experience of care. It is one of our current programmes for Fellowships, launched in 2023. It has been developed in partnership with the Hadley Trust, Coram Group and in consultation with our Children in Care working group. Fellows’ stories
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, 2026
Jeannot Farmer (CF 2023) worked in partnership with MAA Scotland (The Movement for an Adoption Apology Scotland) and Dr. Stella Bolaki of the University of Kent to deliver and take part in two artist's book workshops in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
By Jeannot Farmer, 2026
Terri-Anne Hamer (CF 2025) featured on the Trauma Informed Consultancy Services (TICS) podcast, discussing parenting as a care-experienced mother and the relationship between trauma, healing, and family support.
By Terri-Anne Hamer, 2026
Augusta Itua (CF 2023) hosted a CoramBAAF Exploring Expertise event on trauma-informed and rights-based approaches to care records, following the launch of the Information Commissioner’s Office Better Records Together campaign and new Care Records Standards.
By Augusta Itua, 2026
We spoke to Lucy Peake, Churchill Fellow and CEO of Kinship, about how her Fellowship is shaping support for kinship carers in the UK. Travelling to the USA, she explored kinship navigator programmes and found strong parallels with Kinship Connected, the support model developed by her organisation. Her learning is now informing new trials and partnerships, with the aim of building stronger evidence and securing long-term investment in kinship care – helping to shape a more consistent, better-supported system for kinship families.
By Lucy Peake, 2026
By Niketa Sanderson-Gillard, 2024
Lucy Peake (CF 2024) was recently a guest on Radio 4's Woman's Hour. In her role as CEO of the charity Kinship, she spoke about their new research that 40% of kinship carers are forced to claim benefits to support their caring responsibilities.
By Lucy Peake, 2026
Sharon McPherson (CF 2023) has continued to build on her Churchill Fellowship through a series of major research and practice initiatives in kinship care.
By Sharon McPherson, 2025
We spoke to Churchill Fellow Sophia Alexandra Hall about how her Fellowship helped shape her trauma-informed interviewing toolkit, now used across major UK newsrooms. Drawing on her lived experience and 50 interviews in the USA, she reflects on the need for safer, more empowering media practices for care-experienced and other under-represented people. She also shares how this work has grown through training, conference speaking, and an expanding public platform at Big Issue.
By Sophia Alexandra Watkins, 2025