The Bright Spots Programme is a research and service improvement project run by Coram Voice. The Programme was set up to understand what is important to children in care and care leavers and share learning about what makes life good for them. Official statistics on care-experienced children and young people give only a partial picture of their lives. Data focuses on adult perspectives using objective outcomes measures including placement types and educational attainment. This information does not tell us about how children and young people feel: are they happy, safe and feel they are doing well? The Bright Spots Programme takes a different approach by measuring subjective well-being. Subjective well-being is defined as feeling good and doing well at an individual and interpersonal level. Measuring subjective well-being enables us to understand young people’s experiences by putting their voice at the centre. Bright Spots helps local authorities (LAs) systematically listen to their children in care and care leavers about the things that are important to them. We work to ensure that the views and experiences of children are at the heart of decisions that are made about their lives.
