Sibling Data Cafes for Care Experienced People

Led by: Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh

Funding awarded: £7,927

About the project

Sibling relationships are important for wellbeing and resilience across people’s lifetimes, yet around 70% of children in the Scottish care system are separated from a sibling. There are often limited opportunities for contact between separated siblings.

Administrative data has the potential to help understand and reduce these inequalities, however, there may be limited opportunities for care experienced individuals to learn about this data.

In turn, researchers may not be fully aware of the lived experiences represented by the data, or people’s priorities for how they would like data to be used to make positive changes to the lives of care experienced young people.

This project aimed to address these concerns. It focused on new data about the sibling relationships of care experienced people, which will be made available in the next few years as part of Scotland’s Looked After Children dataset.

Project impact

The project team brought together academic researchers, social care practitioners, care experienced co-researchers and a poet. The project aimed to create a ‘conversation’ between care experienced people/their supporters (for example foster carers, or adoptive parents) and the administrative data collected on care experienced young people’s sibling relationships.

The team held two ‘pop up’ Sibling Cafés where care experienced individuals and their supporters took part in conversations and a range of creative activities, from graffiti boards to ‘voting with ducks’.

Through this, café visitors had opportunities to:

Learn more about the Children Looked After in Scotland dataset, particularly data on sibling relationships
Share their messages with data analysts about the ‘stories behind the numbers’ – i.e. the lived reality of care experienced sibling relationships
Share their priorities for how they would like administrative data to be used in the future to make a positive difference to young care experienced siblings.

Performed poem

Performance poet Craig Houston, who works with care experienced young people, attended the cafes and worked with the project team to create and record a poem using the information gathered in the activities.

Shaped by the stories and views shared by café visitors, the performed poem, is titled ‘Change.’.

Watch the performed poem:

Video not loading? Click here

Click here to read the poem

The project team are seeking feedback on the poem. Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey.

'Voting with ducks' from a Sibling Data Café session

Quotes from participants

“It’s a lovely place. I was able to share what I find important about being/having a care experienced sibling.”

Sibling Café participant

“Very informative. I enjoyed the different stations. Given space and time to talk and share experiences. I think given the examples of what to try to write helped a lot. Loved the ducks!”

Sibling Café participant

“Super helpful, important and made me feel inspired for change.”

Sibling Café participant

“Amazing. I felt heard and able to talk about the issue.”

Sibling Café participant

“Loved it. Felt very empowering. Wonderful to come together with like-minded people!”

Sibling Café participant

More information

Project team:

University of Edinburgh: Dr Katie Cebula (Project Lead); Dr Christina McMellon; Thomas Bartlett; Oriana Coll; Chloe Sharkey
Stand Up For Siblings: Kate Richardson
The Promise: Laura Sharpe
University of Glasgow: Craig Houston (Poet)

This project sits within the Children and Young People’s Research Hub in the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh which provides a framework for ongoing dissemination and impact.

Visit the Moray House School of Education and Sport website

Learn more about the Children and Young People’s Research Hub

Visit the Stand Up For Siblings website

More information about The Promise Scotland