Coram Digest 2019-20

Contents 1

We are the UK’s oldest children’s charity, and have been supporting children and young people for nearly 300 years since our establishment as The Foundling Hospital in 1739.

Welcome

Many charities and organisations have joined us in recent years to establish the Coram Group, providing a range of services to over a million children, young people and families every year.

Fundraising: Changing children’s lives together

Over the coming decade, we will seek to establish ourselves as the UK’s national centre of excellence for children, delivering both direct services to children as well as leading policy development to ensure that best practice becomes the norm across the whole of the children’s sector.

Please note that all personal stories featured in this publication are real but photos of models have been used to protect confidentiality, unless otherwise stated. Thank you to everyone who shared their story.

p2-3

Key achievements and looking ahead p4-5

p34-35

Coram Group p36-37

Rights and Voice We provide legal support to the most vulnerable children and families, ensure that children in care and care leavers have their voices heard, and champion for policy changes that will improve their situation and life chances. p6-9 Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC) is the leading provider of specialist legal support for children, ensuring they can access justice both through providing direct support and also by influencing the policy and legal framework in the UK. p10-15 Coram Voice supports children and young people in care and care leavers, ensuring children know and can exercise their rights and working with governmental bodies, local authorities, social care organisations and health services to ensure children’s voices are at the heart of service delivery.

Education and Early Years

Insight and Innovation

We get children off to the best possible start in life through health, relationship and reading programmes that develop their well-being, while also campaigning for high-quality childcare to be available to all families who need it.

We use our experience of delivering services for the wider good, by providing innovative solutions for professionals, local authorities and governments - in the UK and worldwide – to ensure that those working with children can share our knowledge and better achieve best practice across the sector.

p16-17 Coram Beanstalk recruits, trains and supports volunteers to provide consistent, one-to-one reading support to children aged 3-13 and provides training to people within the school community who want to help children learn to read for pleasure. p18-19 Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation (CSSF) works with young people to build their confidence and cultural capital through learning about and performing the works of William Shakespeare, and participating in the annual Shakespeare Schools Festival. p20-21 Coram Life Education (CLE) is the leading provider of health, wellbeing, relationships and drugs education to almost half a million children across the UK, in one in ten primary schools p20-21 Coram Family and Childcare (CFC) works to make the UK a better place for families, producing sector-leading research on childcare and the early years as well as delivering parent-led programmes.

Adoption and Family Support We find new secure and loving families for the children who need them and campaign to get more adopters coming forward wherever they are needed. We have been an established voluntary adoption agency for more than 40 years. p22-23 Coram Ambitious for Adoption, our regional agency, provides adoption services for local authorities across London. p24-25 Coram’s family finding and adoption support includes Activity Days, Be My Family and First4Adoption. p26-27 Coram’s children’s services include creative therapies and parenting support.

p28-29 Coram-i provides data-led information to local authorities that enables them to analyse performance, identify problems, and deliver improved services to children. Coram’s Impact and Evaluation Team works in partnership with public sector and third sector organisations, and also works across the Coram group to evaluate effectiveness. p30-31 CoramBAAF is a membership organisation for professionals, foster carers, adopters and adults affected by adoption, that provides best practice support and advocates on behalf of members with government and other stakeholders to ensure the very best outcomes for children in care. p32-33 Coram International is a research institution and consultancy specialising in a wide range of issues relating to children’s rights, which has completed projects in over 65 countries worldwide over the last 20 years.

2 Welcome

Welcome 3

In a ‘normal’ year this welcome would have highlighted the further expansion of the Coram Group, the increase in numbers of children and young people we have supported, and our growing status as an authoritative commentator on issues affecting children and young people.

The services that we run across the Coram Group are needed now more than ever – both as we work to provide services despite the constraints of lockdown, and as we look longer-term to address the many issues which have been amplified by the measures to control the pandemic.

But over recent months, we have faced a challenge that none of us foresaw when we published last year’s report setting out how, inspired by our founder Thomas Coram, we continued to work for the children, young people and families who most need our support.

Coram will continue to evolve as we have always done to meet new challenges and changing demand.

We will work too to ensure that the reflection brought about by the Black Lives Matter movement sees us develop further how we serve children and young people from diverse communities and how we function as a group of organisations.

Covid-19 has hit the most vulnerable disproportionately, and the youngest in our society have all too often borne the consequences.

Whether in care or waiting for adoption, caught up in the court system trying to secure their future, or unable to access education while schools and early years settings were closed, the children and young people we help have been in the front line.

Finally, we wish thank every single person – supporters, volunteers and staff – who make our work possible.

It has been a momentous year, but one message that endures is that we shall not rest until every child has the security, love and education they need to thrive.

Sir David Bell, Dr Carol Homden, President and Chairman Chief Executive Officer

As we set out the achievements of the past year, this report underlines where we know there is much still to do and where we will use our experience, skills and passion to support authorities where we can, but also to hold them to account where we must and to work across agencies to inform policy and practice for the future.

“ Internationalism and a belief in the radical power of human rights are at the heart of my thinking and belief. We owe it to the next generation to continue to champion internationalism and the radical power of human rights and to continually push further as we face different challenges. I hold Coram in high esteem for the fundamental values and beliefs we share – that legally enforceable rights are often the key to allowing children to flourish.”

Sir Keir Starmer MP, Leader of the Opposition

Please enjoy reading this report – the first to be wholly digital - setting out what we have done over the last year, and what we plan to do next.

From top: A fabric swatch from Coram’s fascinating archives which are being preserved for future generations, Peter Capaldi with Voices judge Olivia, Club Peloton cyclists, Mary Portas with Carolyn Steen, Honorary Vice President of Coram and John Caldicott, a former Foundling pupil at our annual Christmas Celebration

4 Key achievements

Key achievements 5

3,362 Schools reached

In a year indelibly shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic, our staff, volunteers and supporters came together to ensure we could continue supporting children and young people across all our services. We adapted swiftly to remote working, and behind the scenes are changing working practices and our physical environment to prepare for a different future.

3,949

Even in a challenging year, we take pride in our key achievements and look forward to many landmark moments in 2020-21.

Volunteers

In 2019-20, we:

Thanks to you!

In 2020-21 we will:

• Adapted our services to the lockdown, to support more children, young people, families, schools and agencies than ever

We can only carry out our work thanks to our wonderful supporters, who have continued to back us through the Covid-19 pandemic as we wrestle with the unexpected challenges it brings.

• Publish key research on the experience of children in care and care leavers, EU migrant children and the EU settlement scheme, and the experience of parents struggling to find quality, affordable childcare

• Formed Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation by welcoming the world’s biggest annual Shakespeare festival for young people into the Coram Group • Published the Call for Change, our manifesto for policy makers and sector professionals, marking the 30th anniversary of the UK signing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, setting out the change that needs to happen for make children’s rights and welfare a reality • Started our work on our Voices Through Time: The Story of Care programme which will see the digitisation of our historic archive from 1739 thanks to the extraordinary £1.2m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund • Launched the regional adoption agency Coram Ambitious for Adoption with Bromley, Hillingdon, Waltham Forest, Westminster City Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea joining the existing three local authorities of Harrow, City of London and Redbridge.

We thank every individual and organisation who has supported Coram this year and particularly the wonderful Club Peloton community has raised over £1.6m for Coram since 2012 and didn’t put the brakes on this year, finding creative alternatives when lockdown postponed its Cycle to MIPM (p34).

Several generous supporters joined our Chairman Sir David Bell and CEO Dr Carol Homden in making special gifts to Sheila’s Fund, Coram’s crisis response fund. This included a lead gift from the Smith family, who created the Fund in 2017. These gifts continue to be used to match others’ donations made in support of our Covid-19 response.

Trusts and foundations supported vital work across the Coram group and have responded generously to the pandemic through additional emergency funding and flexible use of existing grants We thank them and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for their permanent support via the Hamlyn Endowment.

12,067 Professionals reached

• Run One Night of Shakespeare, the biggest Shakespeare schools festival in the world, to mark Universal Children’s Day on 20th November

33,315 Teachers subscribed to SCARF

• Recruit more adoptive families who can offer a permanent loving home to children waiting to be adopted and help those who wait to find the families they need

144,720

• Launch the digital timeline for Voices through Time: The Story of Care and enable the voice of children in and leaving care today to be heard • Mark the 40th anniversaries of CoramBAAF, publishing a special supplement of the Adoption and Fostering Journal to inform the future of children’s social care • Work with our partners across the sector to address the longer term issues and create a better post-COVID future for our children and young people.

From top: A young star performs in a production with Coram Shakespeare’s Schools Foundation; Renuka Jeyarajah-Dent, Coram’s Director of Operations and Deputy CEO received an OBE for services to children in the New Year 2020 Honours List.

Children, young people, parents and carers helped directly

431,263 Children supported by Coram’s education and early years services

3,431,881 Digital users of Coram’s specialist advice services

6 Rights and voice

Rights and voice 7

Rights and voice

S ecuring support for homeless children like Anna

Championing children’s rights

“ We acted for Anna*, a homeless 16 year old girl, who was not told about, or given, the social care she was entitled to by her local social services department.

Thousands of children and young people have been able to access justice over the past year thanks to the teams at the Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC). We have continued to offer expert legal advice, hold local authorities, schools and government agencies to account where they are not fulfilling their legal obligations to children and young people, and advocate for changes to the law where there are gaps in the protection it affords the most vulnerable.

nna has a difficult family A background so didn’t want to be placed with a foster family, instead asking to be supported to develop independent living skills. But she was told that she wasn’t entitled to social care support if she refused to be placed in foster care.

CCLC adapted quickly and smoothly to life under lockdown, ensuring there was no break in service to the children and families who needed us.

Expert legal advice and representation The Legal Practice Unit (LPU) has delivered expert legal advice and representation to hundreds of children, young people. During the year, the team has secured refugee status and leave to remain for refugees and migrant children and young people, ensured children in care and care leavers received the local authority support they are entitled to, secured appropriate provisions for children with special education needs and disabilities and ensured children’s best interests are served through family law proceedings.

Their work has included appeals and challenges in the Family Court, Tribunals (Special Education Needs and Disability and Immigration and Asylum Chambers), Administrative Court and the Court of Appeal.

The LPU remained one of only two national providers of the Legal Aid Agency’s CLA Education Law contract (the mandatory telephone gateway to access legal aid advice in education law during the year) and successfully tendered for the new Face to Face Education Law contract.

Funding through the Kids in Need of Defence enabled us to appoint an additional supervising solicitor and we now work with four pro bono partner law firms on the registration of children as British citizens.

During the year our team had a 100% success rate with 36 grants of citizenship, 49 applications made and 75 new cases taken on. We also delivered training to 136 lawyers who will be taking this work forward in the coming year.

CCLC won a critical case following a successful judicial review brought on behalf of a 16 year old homeless child against her local authority (see Anna’s story opposite).

18k Over 18,000 emails and calls on child, family and education law were handled by our Child Law Advice experts

900

Nearly 900 new legal aid cases for children and families were opened by the Legal Practice Unit

700 Over 700 young people across London benefited from direct outreach immigration legal advice

The council placed her in semisupported accommodation, but refused to provide social care support on the basis that she was not a looked after child as she was not in foster care. This meant that Anna didn’t receive any help with finances, education opportunities and emotional support etc. nna had never previously lived A away from home and had no budgeting experience. She didn’t know how to manage her benefits or daily living needs. She ended up with rent and service charge arrears.

Her mental health declined and she experienced health difficulties.

We’re pleased Anna secured the wider support she was entitled to after the local authority admitted she was not correctly told her entitlements. They admitted to a flawed practice around 16 and 17 year olds being placed in semi-supported housing without the protection of looked after child status and social care support, and committed to providing more training for social workers. We hope this ensures other homeless children who ask this local authority for help will not face the same obstacles.” elly Everett, Senior Community Care Solicitor, K Coram Children’s Legal Centre *not real name

8 Rights and voice

Rights and voice 9

Migrant children

Young refugees help others

Child Law Advice

CCLC continues to act as a national centre of specialist expertise on the rights of children and young people affected by the UK immigration system, co-chairing the national consortium of organisations working on refugee and migrant children’s rights, working to improve policy at national level and improve practice on the ground. We trained more than 650 professionals across England, responded to over 800 queries through our legal advice line, and offered free online guidance to thousands more.

A programme of workshops was run by, and for, young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds.

Fifteen young trainers created workshops which were developed alongside specialists from across the Coram group in immigration law, mental health and the care system.

These young people used their experiences of overcoming challenges when moving to the UK to help their peers, increasing young people’s emotional well-being and resilience as well as knowledge of their rights and how to exercise them.

We improved the treatment of children in the EU settlement scheme and supported children, young people and families to apply to remain in the UK. We have supported over 200 people, mostly children in care and care leavers, to help them understand their rights to citizenship and to apply for status under the scheme. This means that they can continue to live in the UK and access their rights and entitlements.

Therapeutic support

Our Child Law Advice Service based in Colchester, Essex, remains the only free source of legal advice and information on family, child and education law affecting children and families in England. Our website was visited by more than two million unique users through the year, exceeding the Department for Education’s target by more 23,000.

The team adapted swiftly during lockdown, quickly providing information on specific areas of law and Covid-19, for example, information on remote hearings and Covid-19, domestic abuse and contact queries.

In the national media we warned that children and young people with complex cases were often struggling with the complexities of the scheme and that delays were having a detrimental impact on this vulnerable group.

We supported undocumented chilcren and young people left in legal limbo by the complexity and high costs of the immigration system, and campaigned for pathways to settlement to be affordable, fast and fair. A special investigation by The Times and Channel 4 News in August highlighted how young people with strong claims to stay were being denied their rights in the ‘hostile environment’, with Coram policy manager Marianne Lagrue making the case for a fairer system.

We have continued to develop therapeutic support for unaccompanied asylum seeking children, delivering training to several local authorities looking at how to improve disrupted sleep patterns, the effects of semistarvation and trauma and how to help these children overcome emotional distress. We are working with City of London and Westminster to advance new practice tools in this area in the coming year.

We will work to be a key informant on the impact of EU Settlement Scheme and the impact of the Immigration Bill and build capacity for greater access to legal information and representation.

Developments in legal aid Immigration legal aid was reintroduced for children on their own in the UK in October, meaning that separated children, who are mostly in care, can get a lawyer to represent them in their application to remain in the UK or to become British. We welcomed this decision, having consistently highlighted the negative impact of the government’s prior removal of legal aid for this particularly vulnerable group, and are now working to ensure all practitioners know about this change, and that steps are taken to identify children with unresolved immigration issues to ensure they can access free, high quality legal representation.

“ Coming here changed my life…I used to be not confident and now I am. If there was a problem with my social worker I used to not say anything but now I know my rights. My foster carer is so proud of me” Djamila, Young Citizens Trainer

In the coming year

undreds of families access justice H in Hackney “ Hackney Migrant Centre has been delighted to work with Coram Children’s Legal Centre over the last few years. Their advisers provide sensitive and expert advice across a range of cases from refused young single asylum seekers to the children of undocumented families and ensure that longer term legal representation is in place to support their clients. They not only provide vital immigration advice, but support the rest of the work we do resolving issues around housing, health and poverty.

This has enabled hundreds of families and young people to access justice, when otherwise the complexity of people’s cases and the cost of securing private advice would have prevented them from establishing their rights in the UK.” Daf Viney, Director of Services, Hackney Migrant Centre

10 Rights and voice

Rights and voice 11

I wasn’t told why I was taken into care

Leading the way in advocacy

“ When I was taken into care at 15, I was moved 80 miles from home. I barely knew my social worker and didn’t know any of the staff or other young people in the care home. I didn’t know why I was there.

Over the last year Coram Voice has continued to lead the way as an advocate for children in care and care leavers and provide a platform for care-experienced young people to tell their stories.

We also inform policy and practice through ground-breaking surveys and co-production with young people.

Bright Spots Our Bright Spots – challenging stigma in the care system paper published in January provided unprecedented insight into how stigma around care affects children in care and care leavers. Developed in partnership with the Rees Centre at the University of Oxford, the Bright Spots programme works to support local authorities to systematically listen young people as part of developing services.

Our research set out how being stereotyped and treated differently remains an on-going issue, with both children and care leavers speaking out about how adults often do things that make them feel embarrassed about being in care.

They described how the behaviours and actions of their social workers, teachers and others who support them can make them feel singled out and reinforce the stigma associated with care experience.

The paper received national exposure in The Guardian, with care leaver and Coram Voice creative Kerrie writing an opinion piece (see opposite) highlighted the ‘worrying’ finding that many children felt they were not given a clear explanation of why they were in care.

Linda Briheim-Crookall, who leads on policy for young people’s voice, wrote an opinion piece for Community Care setting out the key findings of the Bright Spots research for social worker, and in another piece shared what children in care and care leavers have told us about how professionals can avoid stigmatising them.

Following the Bright Spots survey findings, the West Sussex children in care council held ‘Treat me the same’ workshops to address stigma.

A number of changes resulted, including a commitment to hold reviews and other meetings in the young person’s home or a venue other than school.

Since the Bright Spots Programme launched in 2013, we have gathered more than 10,000 responses from children and care leavers in the largest surveys of their kind, and work with over 50 local authorities to help improve the experience of care for children and young people.

In the coming year We will publish a key report so that young people’s reviews can inform and influence the forthcoming Care Review.

16,400 16,400 young people received digital and direct support from Always Heard’s advice line, with intensive ‘safety net’ support to a further 684, a 31% increase from 2018-2019.

6,200 More than 6,200 children and young people in care or care leavers were supported by Coram Voice across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and crown dependencies

3,900 3,900 children and young people were provided with direct support through our advocacy, Independent Visitor, secure accommodation, complaints and participation services

y experience will resonate with M many young people taken into care; they may feel terrified and struggle to adjust to a new place, sometimes far away from where they have grown up, while strangers take control of the key decisions in their lives.

Without an explanation of why they were taken into care, children can blame themselves and feel unworthy of love.

Unfortunately, my social worker never explained why I was taken into care and the idea that I was to blame tore me apart, solidifying in my mind that there was something deeply wrong with me. When I left care, I was referred to an advocate and for the first time, I learned about care records and case notes.

I requested mine but unfortunately they offered no explanation.

The only person who knows why I was taken into care is the social worker who made that decision.

If all social workers took time to ensure that young people understood what had happened to them and why, it would give those young people a better chance of reaching their full potential, which should be the goal for every care experienced person.”

Kerrie, a creative at Coram Voice photo of model to protect confidentiality

12 Rights and voice

Rights and voice 13

New Belongings

National safety net

Young people helping others

We announced we were partnering with eight local authorities across the country to develop a model for improving support for care leavers, through the next phase of the New Belongings programme.

The programme, now funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Segelman Trust, tests different practices to improve services and outcomes for care leavers, some of which have influenced national policy, including the introduction of personal advisers and council tax exemptions.

Always Heard 2019, our annual report on the barriers to independent advocacy faced by young people found that over two thirds of local advocacy services are unable to provide a service that is compliant with national standards, over half are unable to provide full freephone access for their service, and more than one in three are restricted in the support they can offer care leavers.

Up to 600 care experienced young people play an active role in the organisation to help other young people, as part of Coram’s wider Help Advice and Legal Opportunity programme. They are either directly employed or are involved in our co production activities.

Coram Voice is working in partnership with Coventry, Dorset, Hertfordshire, North Yorkshire, North Tyneside, Oldham, Stockport and Wandsworth councils over the next three years to help develop their care leaving services with input from care leavers.

All the councils are measuring the subjective wellbeing of young care leavers using Coram’s expertise developed through the Bright Spots programme, and each is putting in place a care leavers’ forum and ensure their staff can use the programme to learn about and share best practice. In addition, the programme will employ eight care-experienced young people as consultants to enable the engagement of local care leavers.

Always Heard is Coram Voice’s national advice and advocacy safety net for children and young people in and on the edges of care. It is a unique service as it ensures no child needing an advocate is turned away – if a child or young person cannot get help locally we provide them with an Always Heard advocate.

It also works to change the systemic barriers to advocacy, sharing the voice and experience of young people who face such barriers.

It supports and challenges local authorities to put in place the advocacy service their young people are entitled to, engaging with key stakeholders such as the DfE, Ofsted and the Children’s Commissioner.

A range of vlogs created by our care experienced Digital Innovators formed part of our website relaunch.

This included the introduction of AdvoCat, an animated superhero, who features in a series of new videos to explain in a fun and engaging way to children aged 11 and under what advocacy is and how it can help them get their voices heard. We also worked with Norfolk County Council to launch the first ever film for children to promote advocacy and children’s understanding of the child protection process A National Voice, our ambassador programme for care experienced young people, started an online community on Twitter using the hashtag #ANationalVoice to talk about the things that are important to care experienced children and young people. The first conversation, on the theme of ‘connections’, saw over 70 people take part and the hashtag #ANationalVoice used nearly 400 times.

HALO reaches 200,000 children More than 600 young people are involved in HALO (Help, Advice and Legal Opportunity) a ground-breaking programme across the Coram Group which enables them to help other young people through employed, volunteer, training and placement roles.

This year we conducted a study of the social return on investment which showed that in the case of those volunteers working on the Child Law Advice Line, £115 of social value is generated for every £1 spent.

The success of Coram’s HALO programme was celebrated in November at the launch of a report showing how giving skilled people aged 16-25 work opportunities in turn enabled them to support more than 200,000 children.

A further 200,000 were supported indirectly, such as through our Belonging Toolkit to increase inclusion in schools and our Lawstuff website, made more youth friendly by a Young editor and now reaching over 100,000 unique users.

Evaluating the impact of the programme over its first three years, the report showed that the initiative helped Coram directly reach 10,000 more young people than we would otherwise have been able to.

Others included the The Adoptables young ambassadors, youth rights trainers, and reading leaders trained to support younger children to develop their reading confidence, as well as digital innovators and creative contributors.

Youth rights trainers worked with our Migrant Children’s Programme to put the experiences of young people directly impacted by the immigration system at the heart of training. And university law students became volunteers for the Child Law Advice helpline, helping them with their career goals, while ensuring young people could get help at a time when free legal advice is scarce.

HALO, initially funded by the Queen’s Trust, now continues with diversified funding to support greater numbers of beneficiaries.

In the coming year Coram will launch its Youth Forum supported by a new youth trends peer researcher enabling young people further contribute to the strategic development of the Group.

90% 90% of HALO’s young people said they were likely to work or volunteer in the children’s rights sector in the future

77% 77% of practitioners said hearing from young people affected by the immigration system heightened the topic’s importance

£115 £115 of social value is generated for every £1 spent as a result of the HALO volunteers working on the Child Law Advice helpline

“ I’d like to commend Coram Voice and the University of Bristol’s Hadley Centre for Adoption and Foster Care Studies for another wide reaching and insightful survey as part of the Bright Spots programme. I am fascinated to see how the participating local authorities respond and use thisunique perspective to drive improvements.”

Nadhim Zahawi, Former Minister for Children and Families

Coram’s youth rights trainers

14 Rights and voice

Rights and voice 15

Voices Through Time Coram has a long association with the arts, which continues to this day. An exciting new programme of creative events for care-experienced young people is underway after Coram received a grant of £1.26 million from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. And our Voices writing competition continues to give young people the opportunity to explore their creative talents and share their experiences of care.

The Story of Care: Voices Through Time is a four year project that will enable the digitisation of a major part of our archives, dating back to 1739 when the charity was established as the Foundling Hospital, the first home for London’s abandoned babies. More than 100 young people in and leaving care today will take part in creative projects using the archive material to illuminate the past and help them gain new skills and insights.

In Letters from Lockdown, our first project, eight young people learnt about the Foundling Hospital through archive materials during weekly online workshops.

They reflected on experiences of young people in care over time as a springboard for themes of hope, solidarity and gratitude which they explored to create their own handwritten letters. During lockdown, the project was used as a way of easing isolation, supporting mental health and building resilience.

Participants were given an opportunity to ‘meet up’ in between sessions to support each other’s writing. They read their completed letters to a small audience of friends and family, and the letters were shared online. It is hoped that a physical exhibition can take place in the future.

Voices creative writing competition Our annual Voices competition is a celebration of the creativity, talent and imagination of Looked After Children and Care Leavers.

This year’s theme was ‘Dreams’, and more than 300 stories, poems and raps were received. A special late entry category was announced in June to encourage submissions about experiences of Covid-19.

Due to lockdown the award ceremony which usually takes place in London couldn’t be held, but a virtual ceremony where winners will be announced will take place later this summer.

In the coming year

Taking part gave me a voice “ I am a creative by nature and was intrigued by the idea of creating and writing during these unprecedented times. Not only that, but it came at a time where as a care leaver during Covid-19, not many people were asking about our experiences and I felt like I had no voice. This project gave me one. lso, I had zero knowledge on the history of Coram and the care system A in the UK, so being able to learn about Coram’s archive was an invaluable experience. It was fascinating, heartbreaking and inspiring.

Being able to see their faces, hear their stories, learn about how their lives were similar and different to ours. I feel like I have a deeper understanding of myself by understanding the experiences of the looked after children who came before me.

I got so much from taking part. It revived my sense of purpose, gave me structure and inspired other creative projects.”

Nkechi, aged 20, who took part in Letters from Lockdown

Coram will publish an inter-active timeline of care based on our heritage and further develop the Coram Story Centre.

I hope I can inspire others “ My carer suggested I enter Voices 2019, and it was super exciting when I made the final six in my category! I felt so proud of myself.

Meeting the awards host Peter Capaldi was mind blowing, I’m a massive Dr Who fan.

It inspired me to continue writing, it helps to let my feelings out as sometimes it’s difficult to talk about them. I hope I can inspire others in care to write because sadly there are lots of us but this helps to build us back up and prove we matter.

I was very honoured to be invited to be a judge in this year’s competition. It makes me feel that someone believes in me. It is such a privilege to be allowed to be part of something that promotes the abilities of ‘looked after children’ and gives them a creative outlet for what can be difficult experiences.”

Olivia, age 11, Voices competition young judge 2020, pictured here at last year’s ceremony with Peter Capaldi

16 Education and early years

Education and early years 17

An essential partner for schools As the largest national provider of children’s personal, social health and economic education, Coram Life Education is the essential partner to schools. We support policy and practice in children’s learning and development from the early years onwards and this year reached more than 2,000 schools across the country.

Award-winning teaching resources We further developed SCARF – our award-winning online teaching resources for Nursery to Year 6. This included lesson plans, assessment tools and our popular Ofsted self-evaluation toolkit, helping teachers build evidence and an action plan to prepare for an inspection.

Our Back to School with SCARF pack, a free toolkit to help primary schools as they reopen after lockdown was launched during Mental Health Awareness Week. It focuses on skills to help children cope in times of uncertainty, developing resilience, self-esteem, kindness and confidence.

It includes information on preparing for a return to school and teacher guidance on how to develop safe spaces for children to discuss their worries about Covid-19. There are also lesson plans and assembly resources, with films, songs and stories, adaptable for smaller class sizes and outdoor teaching.

Suggested book titles are also included to reinforce SCARF values from our Coram Group partner Coram Beanstalk.

Preparing for mandatory RSE As schools prepare for Relationships, Sex and Health Education to become a mandatory part of the curriculum from September, we ran free events for teachers to learn more about the new requirements. Teachers are particularly keen to engage with parents in the design of the curriculum given adverse publicity about the new curriculum requirement, and reassure them of the value of teaching subjects that cover healthy friendships, resilience, diverse families, and staying safe on and off line.

Tomorrow’s Achievers Our Tomorrow’s Achievers programme is the primary provider of enrichment classes for exceptionally able children aged 5-13 years. Our tailored classes help schools raise attainment and harness the talents of their most able pupils.

420,500 More than 420,500 children were reached by Coram Life Education’s work in schools over the past year

Master classes We continued to run our master classes, with our most popular themes being Lego robotics, film making, maths, science and philosophy. Many of the children return for more than one workshop and enjoy exploring new themes.

Our bursary scheme enables any child to attend, regardless of their parents’ income, and we gave 10% of our places to children who receive free school meals or whose parents are on income support.

33,960 33,960 teaching professionals registered for CLE’s SCARF resources

Coding with purpose

1,300

We ran our first week-long Coding with Purpose clubs with London South Bank University and the support of a Coram donor. The children developed coding, team building and problem-solving skills.

1,300 primary schools signed up for Back to School packs within two weeks of launch, of which at least 800 are new to CLE

elping children as they get back H to school “ The Back to School with SCARF toolkit has been instrumental in our planning for children’s health and wellbeing as they return to our Academy or continue to work from home. It has enabled us to provide a PSHE programme of learning, taught through the SCARF values, which is accessible for our youngest children in Nursery through to our Year 6 children and parents and carers at home.

The toolkit allows us to come together as an Academy with virtual assemblies each week linked to a new value and certificates at the end of each week which we can send home to families. The support and guidance we have received as an Academy from the team at Coram Life Education has been hugely significant in the planning for health and wellbeing in the re-opening to our children, families and staff.”

Sarah, Harris City Academy Crystal Palace, London

18 Education and early years

Education and early years 19

Changing lives through drama The Shakespeare Schools Foundation was welcomed to the Coram Group in April. Now known as The Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, we work with thousands of young people, building their confidence and cultural capital through performing the works of William Shakespeare. The year culminates in the annual Shakespeare Schools Festival, the world’s largest youth drama festival which makes a huge impact on the lives of children and young people nationwide.

World’s largest youth drama festival Every autumn, thousands of young people from primary, secondary and special schools unite in the world’s largest youth drama festival. Young people perform Shakespeare in professional theatres, raising aspirations and unlocking the potential of students and teachers alike. Our 2019 Shakespeare Schools Festival saw more than 16,000 young people from 750 schools perform Shakespeare in professional arts venues around the UK. 34% of schools we worked with were located in the top 30% most deprived areas of the country and 9% of students had a statement of Special Education Needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan (compared to UK average of 3.9%).

children, parents and teachers to stage Shakespeare in their living rooms, bedrooms and back gardens and stream their creativity online.

The result was a brilliant, creative set of Shakespearean performances from every corner of the UK.

Better attainment through Shakespeare We launched a study to find out how children in areas of high deprivation and from Special Educational Needs and Disability settings could improve their academic attainment and social development. The study found that of the 392 students we worked with, 93% improved academically, 86% made gains in social development and 85% of students developed a greater interest in Shakespeare’s plays, building cultural capital.

Lockdown has provided extraordinary challenges to the delivery of this year’s festival. Some of the programme will now be online, but we are committed to delivering a Festival in 2020, giving more children the skills they need to tackle their future with confidence.

Awards

Our first response was to make our award-winning resources immediately available to teachers to support home schooling. We then launched our #RelayShakespeare and #FivePlaysFiveDays social media campaigns which support our resources aimed at encouraging

In the coming year, we will aim for a Guinness Book of Records award for our One Night of Shakespeare to celebrate Universal Children’s Day on 20th November.

We were named in the top 10 charities to work for in the UK by Third Sector magazine in April and were listed in the NatWest/Pioneers Post top 100 social enterprises in May.

In the coming year

rama helped us D face the reality of gang violence “ We set our version of Othello in inner-city Birmingham.

We wanted to present the story in a way that is relevant to us.

Most of us in the cast know someone who has been stabbed or shot. There was a drive-by shooting outside the primary school lots of us went to and very sadly the boy died. Setting it in our area helped us face up to the reality of gang violence, and showed the world what’s happening to us.

I played Othello. It made me think about how easy it can be for someone to manipulate you.

They can pretend to be your friend, but all along they’re just looking out for number one.

Before you know it, the whole situation escalates and people end up doing stupid things.

I f more young people were able to do drama they’d avoid getting caught up in things.

I wouldn’t say I was a ‘big personality’. It might appear that way, but it masks the real me. Drama is so important because it enables everyone to be themselves and not hide. hen I’m older, I’d like to be W a doctor. I want something different for my own life than the destructive lifestyles I see around me. There is so much more out there.” abeera, 14, a pupil at City Academy K Birmingham which took part in Shakespeare Schools Festival for the first time in 2019 photo depicts another one of the many performances given by schools which take part in the Festival

20 Education and early years

Campaigning for better childcare Coram Family and Childcare, which campaigns for better quality, affordable childcare, published its 20th annual Childcare Survey, the most comprehensive study of childcare costs facing families nationwide This year’s survey found that Britain’s parents are paying 5% more for childcare for the under-twos than they were a year ago, with parents being hit by childcare costs rising well ahead of inflation. The survey shows that while support, subsidies and free entitlements are available to many families, the system is too complicated and leaves parents at risk of missing out, and goes on to to make recommendations for reform. It was widely covered across the media, including the BBC, The Times and The Independent. Our 15th annual Holiday Childcare Survey, the country’s most comprehensive survey of holiday childcare costs, found that working parents faced holiday childcare bills of up to £800 – more than double the cost of term-time childcare.

Our Parent Champions Parent Champions are volunteers who give a few hours a week to talk to other parents about childcare and other local services available to families.

Our programme is now reaching more parents than ever before. With more than half of UK parents having experienced loneliness, most acute for those with the youngest children, our Parent Champions for Community Connections programme funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, focuses on reducing isolation and loneliness among parents of children under five.

Education and early years 21

Inspiring a love of reading Over the last year, Coram Beanstalk supported more than 10,000 children through its range of reading programmes, raising their reading confidence, attainment and self-esteem.

We offer a range of one-to-one reading-support programmes for children and train volunteers to help children learn to read in schools across the country.

More and better programmes for children From a single programme for 5-11 year olds in 2016/17, we now have three programmes and eight training initiatives for children aged 3-13.

And, for the first time, we have extended our work into training for parents and carers. We have significantly improved the quality of the support provided by our reading helpers, in line with the changing needs of our school partners.

The report we published earlier this year sets out in detail the difference we have made for children, in particular the work of our reading helpers who inspire younger children who do not yet identify as readers, to develop their reading skills and confidence.

We joined other leading children’s reading organisations in the UK to launch #Unitedbybooks, a social platform to share reading tips for families spending more time at home, an initiative reported in the i newspaper.

Storytime sessions, a series of brilliant books read aloud weekly by celebrities and our volunteer reading helpers to help keep little ones entertained and inspired, was launched on social media in association with our corporate partner, The Very Group and Very.co.uk and kicked off by TV presenter, DJ and model Vogue Williams (see p35)

95%

We teamed up with the i newspaper on a campaign to encourage their readers to volunteer with us, and later in the year the newspaper made us the beneficiary of its 2019 Christmas appeal.

95% of schools felt children were showing better self-confidence and self-esteem following Coram Beanstalk support

In the coming year Our volunteers will support schools to address the learning loss which children have experienced as a result of lockdown and we will help parents to access childcare to support children’s early development.

93% 93% of schools said reading helpers enabled one-to-one support that would be difficult to provide otherwise

Promoting reading at home With schools closing their doors to most students in March, our volunteers suspended school visits, but continued supporting children from afar. We published the first of our Grow a love of reading tips in April, a weekly initiative to share with families, carers and children suggesting book-reading activities, ranging from tips on reading aloud to games that can be played together with any book.

“ Harpreet, one of our Parent Champions, helps to spread messages to her own community by translating at play groups and supporting mums who also do not have English as their first language. She joined with council staff to knock on 187 doors to help make sure families knew about the services they were missing out on.”

Megan Jarvie, Head of Coram Family and Childcare

6,500 eading helps children enjoy R school more “ Our Coram Beanstalk reading helper has worked tirelessly with three of our children who were essentially non-readers. Over the term, she has developed a rapport with these children and this has contributed to a positive working relationship being created between them all.

The children’s reading skills have improved significantly and the children are now enjoying all aspects of school more. It is the one intervention I would not be without.”

Ian McDermott, Head Teacher, Sacred Heart RC Primary School, Manchester

6,500 more children than ever before, have accessed early education thanks to the work of Parent Champions

22 Adoption and family support

Adoption and family support 23

“ In London, there is a particular need to find homes for children described as ‘hard to place’. This includes children from our diverse communities, in sibling groups of two or more, as well as those children with disabilities or special needs. Giving these children a new start will not only enrich their lives… it contributes to making our society a better and more loving place.”

Loving families that last Coram runs the only Regional Adoption Agency to be delivered by a voluntary adoption agency and we are known for the quality of the lifelong support we provide to adoptive families. We also run a range of other family finding programmes to ensure all children receive the stability and security they need.

Leading adoption Coram’s ’outstanding’ Ofsted rated adoption agency this year achieved the national quality mark for Early Permanence practice. This reflects our pioneering work in placing very young children in care proceedings with foster carers who are ready and able to adopt them later, if the courts decide they cannot be cared for permanently by their birth family.

We launched Coram Ambitious for Adoption, the capital’s first regional adoption agency (RAA) last year as part of the government’s plans to make adoption services more efficient through the integration of local authorities and voluntary agencies.

In March this year we were joined by the bi-borough councils of Westminster City Council and Kensington and Chelsea.

Supporting families in lockdown During the Covid-19 pandemic we have launched a range of new and adapted programmes to support families during lockdown, made possible by the Adoption Support Fund (ASF), which made extra therapeutic support available in light of the outbreak.

This additional support is designed to help parents and carers reflect on the impact of Covid-19 on their family life, offering practical steps to cope better and become more resilient now and

in the future. These have been made available to both Coram approved adopters and adopters and special guardianship carers in our regional adoption agency boroughs across London.

They included workshops on building resilience to lockdown stress, therapeutic training for parents of adoptive teenagers, virtual creative therapies and special guardianship support sessions. More informal sessions called ‘Chat and Chill’ also covered topics such as contact and family dynamics, talking to children about their Life Story and school and education.

Support was also offered to adopted young people through The Adoptables, Coram’s network for adopted 13-25 year olds, who worked with Coram Ambitious for Adoption to offer creative sessions helping to explore feelings, identity and build confidence and skills. The young people are now making video content for the agency to use as part of preparation training for adopters, so that they hear from adopted young people right from the start of the adoption process.

David Lammy MP, Coram adopter

900 more than 900 links made between prospective adopters and children awaiting adoption at BeMyFamily exchange days

100 more than 100 children matched with adopters through Adoption Activity Days

100 100 children placed in adoptive families by Coram since April 2019

24 Adoption and family support

Finding more families for waiting children Coram has proactively led the effort to address the current shortage of adopter families for waiting children.

Our CEO Dr Carol Homden spearheaded a media drive between Christmas and New Year, a time of year when there is generally a rise in numbers of enquiries, for people from all walks of life to come forward to offer a loving and permanent home to a child awaiting adoption.

Coram was also visible and active during National Adoption Week last October. We hosted Education Secretary Gavin Williamson for his keynote speech on adoption support (see p29), while adoptive parent David Lammy MP, wrote about his experiences as an adopter parent for Metro newspaper, challenging the myths around who can and cannot adopt. Our CEO also wrote an opinion piece for the Daily Express emphasising that the principle qualification to adopt is the willingness to love and provide a permanent home for a child who needs it, while single parents Saphie described her life-changing experience adopting through Coram in an article in The Metro.

Foster care in Croydon We recruit and assess foster carers for Croydon Council, with 11 new carers approved this year, providing the council with more capacity to place their looked after children in-house.

As part of our work in recruiting foster carers for Croydon, we have developed a virtual training course and we now undertake assessment visits by video call. In addition, we have produced a video of our information session so that anyone interested in fostering can watch it at their convenience.

Adoption and family support 25

National family finding We have continued our work to increase opportunities for children to be placed with prospective adopters across the country.

Through our BeMyFamily national exchange days, adopters and agencies nationwide are given the opportunity to meet and identify potential links for children that may otherwise not be possible. During six exchange days, up to 200 families and staff from 117 adoption agencies attended to see more than 2,100 profiles of children awaiting adoption have been made. As a result, 906 links were made, and so far at least 12 matches and two potential matches between children and families.

More than 250,000 unique visitors sought information about adoption from the First4Adoption website.

As part of their research into adoption, more than 17,000 prospective adopters undertook Firststeps e-learning on the site.

Activity Days We continued to run our highly successful activity days, with over 100 children confirmed to have been matched before the lockdown meant we had to close temporarily before running the final event of the year.

And while the lockdown prevented us running physical events, an Activity Day for Fostering held in London in spring 2020 proved that there was both the need and the commitment to facilitate more. 16 children attended that day and over 30% were found permanent families to care for them to adulthood.

We continue to explore new ways of working to ensure children and young people who usually benefit from attending in person can continue to be involved in family finding through safe and secure digital activities.

New perspectives from adopted children The Adoptables programme now offers support for regional adoption agencies to help ensure that the views and feeling of adopted young people are heard as part of the work of an adoption agency.

The Ambassador programme has seen young people create ‘how to tell your story’ guidance for parents and professionals, work with virtual school heads across the country and take part in teacher training sessions.

Coram in the East Midlands Coram has made changes to its adoption service in the East Midlands, following the decision taken by our board of trustees that running a freestanding branch in Shepshed was no longer sustainable, both due to financial constraints across the sector along with a falling number of adoptions locally making the branch unviable.

Our East Midlands office therefore closed in February this year. Coram remains committed to supporting all our existing adoptive families in the East Midlands via our experienced and knowledgeable London team, and our dedicated helpline for advice and support, staffed by experienced social workers, was also made available to our East Midlands families.

In the coming year Coram will welcome two further local authorities to our regional adoption agency and will continue to champion the cause of early placement for children waiting, to inform national policy and practice.

doption activity A days change lives “ We cannot recommend Adoption Activity Days highly enough. They are so rewarding as you get to spend quality time with the children, plus there is chance of a magical connection. he themed days are well run T and a joy to attend. We knew it was going to be special from the minute we walked in and saw a little lad’s beaming smile asking if we’d play on his football team. fter three hours of fun, games A and a magic show, a fellow prospective adopter said, ‘You do know he’s chosen you, don’t you?’ We’d found our son – or rather he’d found us. You just can’t get that feeling from a written profile and a photograph. e also got to spend time with W the social worker and his foster mum, which really helped in knowing we were a good match to support his needs. under four months he moved In in to complete our family and make our house a home.

I t’s been six months now and we can’t imagine life any other way. We can’t thank the Coram Adoption Activity Day team enough for changing all of our lives.”

Paul and David, adopters

Families for life Coram is an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rated independent adoption agency, helping children find new parents for more than 40 years. We are proud of the sensitive service and training we offer to our adopters and the post adoption support available to all Coram families as long as it is needed.

If you’ve been inspired to find out more about adoption, visit our dedicated website to find out how you could start your own adoption journey.

26 Adoption and family support

Adoption and family support 27

Enabling parents to support their children Coram teams work in aFoundation range of settings around thetocountry providing Shakespeare Schools was welcomed the Coram Group parents support they need.

We believe in early help, and we in April. with Now the known as Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, collaborating with families to empower them to their find solutions, work with thousands of young people, building confidence and enabling children to thrive in their home settings. cultural capital through performing the works of William Shakespeare.

The year culminates the helped annual more Shakespeare Festival, Over the last year wein have childrenSchools and parents, andthe world’s largest youth drama festivalthanks and makes huge impact worked in a wider range of settings to theasuccess of theon the lives ofofchildren and young people nationwide. range programmes we run.

Coram Creative Therapies Coram’s ground-breaking art and music therapy helps children and young people overcome complex and traumatic backgrounds every day. At least 830 children, young people, parents and carers received therapeutic support during the year across London and Kent.

Kent is a large county with a significant number of adopters and adopted children and we are working with Virtual School Kent, which acts as a local authority champion to promote the progress and educational attainment of children and young people who are or who have been in care so that they achieve educational outcomes comparable to their peers.

The team has delivered therapeutic support in a variety of forms, from parenting groups such as Incredible Years, to non-violent resistance groups that address some of the behaviours experienced by parents.

The team in London has continued to deliver a broad range of projects to children including those who are adopted, attending a youth offending team programme or in special schools. We have also delivered training to staff to support their work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, partnering with a local authority to develop bespoke training.

Our creative therapists have established positive links with education and multiagency teams in various settings. Therapists deliver art and music therapy in specialist provisions for children and young people with additional needs, including for children who are not able to access mainstream education.

Brighter Futures for parents in Thurrock Coram provides parents with the support and advice they need at all stages of parenthood. We are currently commissioned by Thurrock Council to deliver a range of accredited parenting programmes to families open to early help services or social care.

Our work on the ground is founded on bringing people together to share learning and understanding of what children need, under the banner ‘Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities’.

Keeping going during lockdown was a particular challenge, given that most of the families we work with do not have the technology to make online sessions viable. We adapted by giving our team allocated parents with hourly phone calls offered each as a minimum.

Issues of concern to families were discussed, whether specific to lockdown or otherwise, and particularly vulnerable families were identified and offered additional support. We often acted as conduits between families and partner agencies, linking them with over services where the need arose.

We are working with adult education services around delivering learning in respect of ‘Aiding your Anxious Child’ – an issue of concern identified by a number of parents. WhatsApp groups were established for each group and became vibrant ways for parents to keep in touch and support one another through this extraordinary time.

Helping parents overcome addiction The Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) offers an alternative way to support parents across ten London boroughs to overcome the substance misuse, mental health issues or domestic abuse that put their children at risk of serious harm.

The work, in partnership with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, is underpinned by the belief that parents can change, and the number of children entering the care system can be reduced, but when this is not possible FDAC works to ensure that parents are treated fairly in court proceedings.

The last year has seen an expansion of the FDAC, enabling more families to benefit from its model. We bid successfully to expand into new boroughs and to develop our parent mentor programme, including the recruiting and training of more parent mentors.

The parent mentor programme is the only component of the FDAC model where support to parents is provided by non-professionals who have experienced similar challenges in their lives. Their understanding of the impact of drugs and alcohol on children and families, and their own experience of child protection and/or family court proceedings, is a powerful addition, alongside the work of the FDAC specialist team, in helping parents to recognise and overcome their own struggles.

We also bid successfully to deliver training on the impact of substance misuse on children to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service.

usic therapy helps Paul develop M confidence “ Paul, 15, was referred to Music Therapy after a number of changes in his education setting resulted in him appearing low in mood and confidence, and not engaging with others at school.

Paul attended taster sessions enthusiastically and he frequently said that he felt ‘calm’ when making music. He developed confidence to try different instruments and engaged in guided activities with his peers.

I met with Paul and his mum at a Parent Review, where we reflected on the more positive messages that Paul was now receiving from staff about his engagement at school and participation in lessons. Paul was able to share his hopes and make plans for life outside and after his Music Therapy came to an end. Paul began to use the sessions to explore the life he might like to live and voice his aspirations to become a youth worker or a mental health nurse.”

Coram Music Therapist photo of model used to protect confidentiality

28 Insight and innovation

Insight and innovation 29

Consult us to evidence the best outcomes for children

Engaging, influencing and championing change

Evidencing impact is more important than ever. Coram’s Impact and Evaluation Team has expertise in data analysis, qualitative, quantitative and participatory research. Our research has been used by national and local government and charities to inform and improve practice, including the development of guidance for adopters and kinship carers and new national policies and guidance to support children who are excluded from school. If you are a public sector or third sector organisation, click to find out how our Impact and Evaluation team can help you evidence what’s working and improve service delivery.

Our history and day-to-day work give us a unique perspective from which to advocate for policies making a positive difference for children and young people. This year we have engaged with policy makers, professionals, media and communities to champion change.

Coram calls for change We published our Call for Change in March, a manifesto that sets out where we believe the new Parliament must act to improve children’s lives. Changes we are calling for include incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into UK law, a child rights impact assessment prior to the introduction of any new legislation, and the enshrining of the right to an independent advocate for all children in the care of the state.

Financial Times Our CEO Dr Carol Homden shared her vision for Coram in April in an interview in the FT. Dr Homden described how Coram has grown from being a charity concentrating on adoption to one that now delivers a range of services to hundreds of thousands of children and young people every year.

Adoption insight Coram-i now runs the national data collection for adoption and special guardianship for the Department for Education, gathering and analysing data from agencies in England to provide valuable insights to the sector’s decision makers to ensure the system works as effectively as possible for children.

Evaluating Family Group Conferencing

Informing and influencing policy

Coram is carrying out an evaluation of Family Group Conferencing at pre-proceedings stage, to assess how effective FGCs are as an intervention. The evaluation, which involves a randomised controlled trial, involves over 20 local authorities in England and is funded

by What Works for Children’s Social Care.

Coram has met with parliamentarians from across the political divide over the last 12 months, offering them our support in delivering positive change for children wherever possible.

Listening to young people on knife crime We created a rare opportunity for 50 young people to talk directly to professionals about the impact knife crime is having on them, and contribute to delivering solutions through a series of six focus groups run in 2019. We produced an initial briefing paper and a final report, which informed an event held at Coram, where 100 young people, campaigners and professionals shared ideas and expertise on how best to combat the epidemic.

“ Coram’s authoritative briefings inform our debates and enable us to hold government departments to account very effectively. They are highly regarded and respected by colleagues on all sides of the House and are widely used. Coram’s history and its current range of activities give it a voice which carries real weight and moral authority.”

Lord Russell of Liverpool. Cross-bencher, House of Lords, Coram Governor

2020–22

Client: Source: Date: Page: Reach: Value:

“Coram Every Yellow child deserves the best possible chance in life” News Financial Times 30/03/2020 14 163324 62688.34

How to Lead. Carol Homden, group chief executive of Coram

Guiding when goodwill is high but resources tight The world’s oldest children’s charity has grown by ‘amalgamation’ with many smaller players. By Stefan Stern usinesses are on the hunt for a purpose. But it is not always easy to set one out that is meaningful and accurately reflects what people in the business do all day.

In the charity and not-for-profit sector finding a purpose is the least of their problems. But to lead and manage dedicated people when resources are tight and scrutiny is intense is no simple task.

Carol Homden, group chief executive of Coram, the UK’s oldest children’s charity, accepts the challenge head on.

“Every single one of us in the charitable sector has a duty to ask: ‘Do we need to exist? And how can we do it better?’,” she says. Ms Homden has led the charity through a sustained period of growth since taking on the CEO role in 2007.

What was a relatively narrow focused charity with a turnover of £6.5m, which concentrated on providing alternative care for children — adoption and fostering — has grown into a large group containing nine (soon 10) different organisations, with a turnover of £25m.

In the private sector mergers and acquisitions are notoriously difficult and often an expensive failure. In the world of charities, “monstering” — the snaffling up of small organisations which then lose their identity — is also a longstanding problem.

B

How has Coram managed to avoid these pitfalls? “We’re extremely clear what we are trying to do,” Ms Homden says. “We are trying to create better chances for children.”

The vision, she adds, “is not about the pursuit of profit. It’s not about taking out the competition, which M&A very often is, nor asset stripping . . .[we are] bringing in distinctiveness and innovation, and then changing the receiving body as a result of that new injection into its DNA.” To achieve this, Ms Homden says, you have to be very clear about the common strategic goal and the values. “But it does require a personality of leadership . . . and it does involve creating trust and shared motivation.”

The private sector, Ms Homden suggests, can be insufficiently focused on value and values as opposed to profit.

Coram does not even talk about M&A. “We are the oldest children’s charity in the world [founded in 1739], we are not merging with anyone,” she says. “It’s not about the money, it’s about the benefit. So we use the word ‘amalgamate’ . . . There is no ‘us and them’ — there is only ‘us’.”

This message of unity was severely tested in 2013, when a dispute between Coram and its next door neighbour in

1 Coverage is reproduced under license from the NLA, CLA or other copyright owner. No further +44 (0) 20 7264 4700 copying (including the printing of digital cuttings) digital reproductions or forwarding is permitted except under license from the NLA, http://www.nla.co.uk (for newspapers) CLA services@kantarmedia.com http://www.cla.co.uk (for books and magazines) or other copyright body. www.kantarmedia.com

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson MP made a landmark speech on adoption at Coram to launch National Adoption Week in October, while in January former children’s minister Michelle Donelan MP also visited to reaffirm government support for our adoption work. CoramBAAF took part in a round table in April with new Children’s Minister Vicky Ford to help shape government response to Covid-19’s impact on vulnerable children.

Our policy experts met with incoming Shadow Education Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey MP and Shadow Children’s Minister Tulip Siddiq MP in April, to open communication with the Opposition front bench and contribute to its policy development.

Gavin Williamson MP, Education Secretary, pictured above with Coram CEO Carol Homden

In the coming year Coram will publish key findings on the EU Settlement Scheme and 10,000 Voices to inform the Care Review and will work with partners to assess the impact of COVID-19 ensuring that children’s views and experiences inform and effect policy.

“ I would particularly like to thank Coram, which has been helping vulnerable children for centuries, nearly three of them to be precise… In recent years, the trend that concerns us all is the disparity between numbers of children awaiting adoption and adoptive families ready to take them. This is one of the reasons why it’s so important to me to continue to support National Adoption Week, to raise awareness, to get more of the right people coming forward, and in the longer term, make sure that the only barrier to adoption is finding a family that fits.”

Gavin Williamson MP, Education Secretary

30 Insight and innovation

Insight and innovation 31

Supporting our members

Shaping practice in adoption and fostering

Our Advice Line continues to be a source of information and support for adoption and fostering professionals, contacted by more than 2,000 members over the past year.

CoramBAAF is the national membership organisation for adoption and fostering professionals, foster carers, and adopters and others working with children in or from care. Members continue to report high satisfaction with CoramBAAF’s resources, shared expertise and analysis of the regulatory and legislative framework, with 97% of respondents to our 2019 members’ survey telling us they would recommend CoramBAAF membership to a fellow professional.

Review of Special Guardianship Orders

Sibling relationships in the care system

In collaboration with Lancaster University, we published a major research review on Special Guardianship Orders, in response to the Court of Appeal’s call for authoritative guidance on the use of SGOs (orders made by the Family Court placing a child or young person with someone other than their parent(s) on a long-term basis).

CoramBAAF’s Director of Policy, Research and Development John Simmonds highlighted the serious challenges faced by children’s services and courts when making care plans or permanence orders for siblings, notably writing an opinion piece for Children and Young People Now magazine.

John argued that the care system must be driven by its primary duty as set out in international agreements and domestic legislation to make relationships, not break them and called for the pending Care Review announced by the Department for Education to make this issue a priority.

The review highlighted the benefits to children of SGOs – often providing a safe, permanent home with family members when the court decides they cannot live with their birth parents.

However, it also set out the major issues that local authorities and courts face in providing special guardians with adequate preparation and support. We made recommendations for reform to the current system, providing a strong platform for change.

Swift guidance on the lockdown CoramBAAF responded swiftly to the coronavirus pandemic, creating a dedicated section on our website providing authoritative guidance to our members on adapting their practice before DfE material was available.

Content included a summary of the Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, guidance on virtual panel meetings, and advice on ensuring adequate fostering capacity, making arrangements for contact and managing introductions and placement of children with prospective adopters.

“ This service is invaluable. It is good to know there is someone to answer your adoption-related questions. Brilliant service.”

Suzanne Strachan, Adoption Manager, St Francis’ Children’s Society

There was also an unprecedented rise in the number of downloads of Adoption & Fostering Journal articles – from 43,000 to 54,500.

Over 6,000 members received the Adoption and Fostering Digest, keeping you up-to-date with key developments across the UK.

Fostering across Borders We have also developed resources to support foster carers looking after unaccompanied migrant children across Europe, with CoramBAAF leading UK development work as part of Fostering Across Borders (FAB), designed to improve the quality of family-based care for unaccompanied migrant children in Austria, Belgium, Greece, Luxembourg and Poland, as well as the UK. FAB, funded by the EU and overseen by the International Organization for Migration, mapped fostering provision for children and developed a training programme for foster carers with comprehensive instructions for trainers. Supporting resources included an information leaflet on caring for the children and fact sheets on the five main countries that children come from.

We trained 100 people across the UK, and have received excellent feedback about the content and format. Agencies are now using the materials both with groups and 1:1 with carers, and CoramBAAF continues to provide supporting consultancy.

If you work in adoption or fostering, find out about the range of membership benefits by visiting our website.

T raining was pivotal to our fostering work “ The project has genuinely been a huge asset in terms of our developmental work. We’ve been able to develop a new, and specialist training pathway for carers looking after asylum seeking and refugee children, or those whom having an interest in doing so.

This has not only supported our developments in enhancing the quality of placements for these children and young people, it has also been synonymous with foster carer recruitment. ivotal to a campaign to increase the number of carers for asylum P seeking and migrant children has been the message that these children achieve the best possible outcomes in family-based care.” arah Spoard, Advanced Practitioner with the Fostering Service at West Sussex County S Council, who took part in the FAB training run by CoramBAAF

32 Insight and innovation

Insight and innovation 33

Protecting children’s rights Coram International is a world leader in the protection of children’s rights.

We have delivered 27 projects in 34 countries over the past year.

We hold preferred status as consultants to UNICEF in New York, East Asia and the Pacific Region. Here are just a few examples of our research, situational analysis and public policy work over the past year.

Child protection in Libya In Libya, we drafted a national action plan on the elimination of violence against children. This included a range of key measures such as the reorganisation of institutions for children (including detention centres for migrant children) and the establishment of a functioning child protection system. We will work with the Libyan authorities, UNICEF and other partners to implement the plan over the next five years.

Marginalised children and Covid-19 With lockdown preventing international travel, we turned to alternative approaches to complete work we normally carry out in the field. For example, conducting remote research into the child protection system in Ghana with government officials, child protection professionals and UN staff.

However we recognise that many marginalised groups of children cannot access the internet or phones, So we are working closely with partners to ensure their voices continue to be heard. This is particularly important in the face of increased violence, heightened vulnerabilities and risk and, as yet, unknown challengesas a result of Covid-19.

Vulnerable children in East Asia and Pacific Over the last year we have consolidated our status as experts on the situation of children in the East Asia and Pacific region.

In late 2019, we supported UNICEF to complete a landmark report – Children in ASEAN: 30 Years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child - which advocated the recognition of the rights of children from highly vulnerable groups in the region, including migrant children, children of ethnic minority groups and LGBTQI+ children. The report was released at the 2019 ASEAN Commemorative Event hosted by the Government of Thailand.

We produced comprehensive situation analyses on the rights of children and women in Malaysia and Indonesia, covering all aspects of a child’s life across childhood and adolescence, and with high levels of participation from children, whose voices were instrumental in shaping the report. Both reports are now being used by the national governments and UNICEF to improve outcomes for children.

9,800 over 9,800 research participants, including over 4,500 children and young people

400 professionals received specialist training to support children across the world

27 27 projects delivered in 34 countries in last year

Improving the care system in Myanmar “ In Myanmar, there are 600,000 children living in residential care homes, from babies to 18 year olds. We’ve been working with the Government of Myanmar and UNICEF to assess the care system.

We travelled to all the different regions of Myanmar, visiting 200 children’s homes and speaking to over 2,000 people to gain an understanding of how residential homes work. Apart from surveys and focus groups, we carried out in-depth interviews with 300 children in the care homes, to understand their experiences.

We found 82% of children are sent to homes by family members to access education, with 93% experiencing poverty at home. There are varying practices in terms of discipline, routine and wellbeing.

Our assessment focused on finding out the extent to which the children’s wellbeing, safety, education and health needs were being met. For example, we found that the dormitories were in bad condition in many of the homes, and children were not always provided with a bed or mat, blanket or pillow. Not all had sufficient food, space to play or staff to care for them. Many only left the grounds of the home to go to school or for religious worship.

We continue to work with the Myanmar Government to improve conditions, including bringing in compulsory registration for all children’s homes, regular child protection training and care plans.”

Professor Carolyn Hamilton, Director of Coram International

34 Fundraising

Fundraising 35

Making reading more accessible Vogue Williams pictured here was among celebrities who read books for children as part of online Storytime sessions from the Very Group, which voted to support Coram Beanstalk as it’s charity partner for the next two years, to raise upwards of £600,000 through fundraising, events, commercial activity and add benefit through their industry-leading tech knowledge.

Changing children’s lives together Whether you run, cycle, host an event, include us in your will or simply make a donation, your commitment ensures these children get the help they need now and in the future. From everyone at Coram, thank you so much for your ongoing support.

Corporate partners rise to the challenge

Pedal Power Over 200 cyclists took part in the three big rides through the European countryside raising over £330,000.

In addition, Club Peloton’s Northern Power Ride from Newcastle to Manchester and co-sponsored by Legal & General and JLL raised £19,528.77 for Coram.

Despite COVID-19 forcing the cancellation of Cycle to MIPIM 2020, many cyclists rallied round before lockdown to raise further funds by taking on the Knight Frank Cycle to MIPIM Strava Challenge which included teams doing relay laps of Regents’ Park. In less than a month teams cycled 39,698km – the equivalent of cycling to MIPIM 26 times.

Inspiring the next generation

Corporate partner thanks

Fundraising events

Individual kindness

McCarthy & Stone’s staff, homeowners and suppliers took part in challenges, fancy dress contests, and galas, doubling their target to raise £223,579.83 through their year-long partnership with Coram Beanstalk.

Staff also volunteered as reading helpers to help children develop vital literacy skills.

We are also hugely grateful to Ansvar Insurance, Balfour Beatty, Cadence Innova, Caterpillar Foundation, CBRE, Core Five, Cristos Lazari Foundation, Credit Agricole, CVC, DCMS staff, Forum for the Built Environment, Guy Butler, Hamleys, Hudgell Solicitors, Havas London, IICF, Kimpton Fitzroy London, Norton Rose Fulbright, Picton, Rede Partners, Sodexo and The Stop Hunger Foundation, and QA for their wonderful support.

Thanks to over 50 runners, cyclists and walkers our challenge events activity raised over £80,000 for Coram’s vital services in 2019, but sadly events in early 2020 were cancelled due to Covid-19.

Thanks to hundreds of kind individuals who have donated to Coram in the last year we received £830,000. Whether finding adoptive parents, securing homeless young people a safe place to live or fighting for children’s rights – with your help every child can get the best possible start.

Christmas Spirit Coram Beanstalk benefited from The Old Vic theatre’s bucket collections throughout the stage production of A Christmas Carol 2019, raising over £100,000.

Special Delivery Coram Beanstalk were delighted to be selected as a new partner of The DHL Foundation and receive a £50,000 donation to support our one-to-one reading support for children aged 3-13.

Authors Joanna Trollope, Katharine McMahon, Helen Lederer and Jamila Gavin were part of our Inspiring Women’s literary panel discussion, hosted by Coram Governor Kate Adie.

Leading baritone Christopher Purves joined Sounds Baroque for our annual Handel Birthday Concert, directed by Julian Perkins, with the Junior Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Band of the Scots Guards.

Thanks to Ansvar Insurance, Kimpton Fitzroy London, Hamleys and Rede Partners for their support towards the Christmas Celebration and Handel Birthday Concert events.

Leaving a legacy Gifts in wills are hugely important to our work. Those remembering Coram in their will raised more than £185,000. Your gift, however large or small, means we can be there for vulnerable children as long as they need us.

Trusts and Foundations We are grateful to the many trusts and foundations that support our work, including longstanding supporters the Hadley Trust, the Pears Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

We are fortunate to have received income of over £1.3 million from family

“ I came to the conclusion that cycling from 7am-10pm at 30kmph each day with a shorter final day to mimic our traditional ceremonial 3pm finish on the Croisette would be enough to cover the whole distance, barring any hiccups. It made sense to finish where we started, at the entrance to London Zoo, and we then rode together to Coram for a more ceremonial finish at 3pm.”

Christian Spencer-Davies, who organised a 1,500km (distance from London to Cannes) relay around Regent’s Park when Knight Frank Cycle to MIPM was postponed. Watch ITV London’s interview with Christian and Coram’s Rachel Backshall here.

hristmas cards C can transform lives 5,033 was raised through the £ sale of our Christmas cards last year. That could go towards three adopted children having Creative Therapy over three months, helping them adjust to the big change of joining a new family.

ICAP: Trading for the Future Celebrity ambassador Sarah Beeny (see right), Sian Welby, Camilla Kerslake and Alastair Stewart showcased Coram to traders at the annual ICAP Charity Day in London, enabling Coram to develop a new programme to improve disadvantaged children’s numeracy skills.

The cancellation of the London Marathon due to lockdown did not deter Coram’s marvellous staff and supporters, who took part in a range of alternative 2.6 Challenges to raise more than £7,000, including 8 year old Leah who ran 2.6 miles for Coram (pictured here with her dad).

trusts and grant making foundations in 2019/20. This ranges from supporting Adoption Activity Days, which provide children in care with the chance of a new family, to vital literacy support for children struggling with reading.

Lady Janet Hulme, Sir Trevor Pears CMG and Mrs Jane Hamlyn, Chair of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, visited Coram during the year. Esmée Fairbairn Foundation funds Coram Centre for Impact, Migrant Children’s Project, Coram Voice’s New Belongings and a programme for Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation.

BBC Children in Need continues to support our Legal Centre’s life changing work for children with special educational needs and disabilities, ensuring they have fair adjustments to their environment and appropriate school placements.

We also welcomed renewed funding from Comic Relief, supporting our Creative Therapy work over three years for very young children who have had a traumatic start to their lives.

36 Coram Group overview

Coram Group: Better chances for children Coram is the UK’s oldest children’s charity and has been supporting vulnerable children for 280 years.

Coram today is a group of specialist organisations helping more than a million children, young people, professionals and families every year. coram.org.uk

Children’s rights and voice

Education and early years

Adoption and family support

Coram Children’s Legal Centre is the dedicated children’s rights centre in the UK, upholding the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child through specialist legal advice, practice and policy development. childrenslegalcentre.com

Coram Life Education is the leading provider of personal, social, health and economic education to almost half a million children across the UK, Finland, Barbados and Cyprus.

Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation enables children to perform Shakespeare in schools, building their confidence and cultural capital.

coramlifeeducation.org.uk

shakespeareschools.org

Coram Voice gets young voices heard in decisions that matter to them and works with them to improve the lives of children in care, leaving care and those who depend on the help of the state.

Coram Beanstalk is a national children’s charity that has been providing evidence-based, impactful reading support programmes for over 45 years.

Coram Family and Childcare works to make sure that every child has access to high quality childcare and every parent is better off working once they have paid for childcare.

beanstalkcharity.org.uk

familyandchildcaretrust.org

Insight and innovation

Coram Ambitious for Adoption is the first Regional Adoption Agency to be launched in London by a group of local authorities and Coram to make the adoption process quicker and simpler. coramadoption.org.uk

CoramBAAF is a multi-disciplinary membership organisation supporting agencies and professionals who work with children and acts as an advocate on behalf of its members across the UK.

Coram children’s services include creative therapies, parenting support and young people’s programmes.

Coram-i works with local authorities to help them improve their services for looked after children and provides national services in insight and innovation.

coram.org.uk

corambaaf.org.uk

Coram International is a research institution and consultancy, specialising in a wide range of issues relating to children’s rights around the world, staffed by child rights lawyers and socio-legal researchers. coraminternational.org

coram-i.org.uk

coramvoice.org.uk

“ Coram is a magnificent charity which traces its lineage back to Thomas Coram, after whom the charity is named, who set up a Foundling Hospital at a time when hardly anyone cared about poor and vulnerable children, and its work continues today... Coram is one of my personal favourite charities for many reasons.”

James O’Brien, radio presenter

If you have been inspired by what you have read, please sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with our developments, make a donation or simply find out more about the work of the Coram Group.

Thank you for your support.

“ I believe every one ought, in duty, to do any good they can” Thomas Coram, 1738

Coram Accreditations: Helpline Standard (Coram Voice) PSHE Association Quality Mark (Coram Life Education) The Information Standard NHS England (Coram Life Education) Lexcel Legal Practice Quality Mark (Coram Children’s Legal Centre) The International Information Security Standard

Be part of the Coram story Coramsince1739

Coram Campus 41 Brunswick Square London WC1N 1AZ

@Coram

CoramSince1739

Tel: 020 7520 0300

Keep up to date with the latest news and events on our website:

Registered Charity no: 312278

coram.org.uk