The Upheaval of Moving House

Since August last year, I have moved house 3 times. That’s not because I like moving around, it’s just how it worked out. Luckily, that's it for now.


The moving process wasn’t really all that difficult – I moved my stuff from storage to home and the rest of my belongings were already with me. However, it was still quite an upheaval and after 4 weeks, I’m just starting to find my feet.


Whilst I didn’t feel hugely stressed, my body told me a different story. My hands dried up, my skin went crazy and generally I felt a little lethargic. I guess it’s only natural as you adapt to your new surroundings and take it all in.


However, it led me to thinking about young people in care and how they must feel constantly moving around from home to home. Some young people are lucky and only go into care for a short while. Others spend years of their life shuffling from one place to another and generally having to call the place that they put their hat, home.


I have spoken to many young people in care and am constantly amazed at how many homes they have had to live in. I met one who had asked to be moved to a children’s home simply so that he could have some stability in his life. Many had lived in over 40 homes and were only in their early teens.


During this time, if they are lucky, they are in education and attempting to deal with all the pressures that other young people can find hard. They may have to move school if their new home is not close by and generally adapt constantly to living with people that they might not even get on with.

It’s no surprise therefore that young people in care have poor long-term outcomes. Almost two fifths achieve no GCSE’s at all whilst a further fifth obtain less than 5 GCSE’s. At age 19, almost a third of previously looked-after children are not in education, employment or training. (Official stats from The Poverty Site). These figures are shocking.


I believe that there are many people working to change the care system to try to improve those outcomes - it’s a difficult task with many processes involved. However, let’s hope they work something out that helps those young people, who have already been through hugely stressful situations to get them into care in the first place, to have a more stable childhood and a life where they can obtain as much as any other young person starting out in the world.


And meantime, I’m going to stop moaning about my granny hands and spots and think about how lucky I am. And then I'm going to call my local council and see what I can do that might help these young people achieve brighter and better futures.


Suzannah Wallace
AlterEgo
Inspiring and Motivating Young People
www.alteregocoaching.co.uk