Blue Cabin Annual Report 2022-2023

Blue Cabin develops and strengthens relationships between care-experienced children, young people and adults, and the people and organisations who are part of their lives. Creativity is at the heart of all that we do.

12 wks24 yrs

age range of care-experienced children and young people we have worked with

local authority staff have benefited from our high quality training

165

care-experienced children and young people have taken part in our programmes

5

185 108

adults (including kinship carers, foster carers, birth family members) have taken part in creative activities alongside the children in their care

local authorities have partnered with Blue Cabin to deliver projects that benefit their care-experienced children and young people

“[The programme has] made me realise my worth.” Young person

What Blue Cabin does Why we do it

Since 2016 Blue Cabin has been nurturing meaningful relationships between care-experienced children and young people and the people and organisations in their lives. By ‘care-experienced’ we mean a child or young person who is being cared for by their local authority, sometimes known as a ‘looked-after child’.

We support care-experienced children and young people, and their carers, to build meaningful relationships with one another by offering them regular opportunities to play, create, connect, and experience joy together.

We underpin our practice with an awareness of trauma and the impact that this can have, as every care-experienced person has faced a range of adverse childhood experiences.

• 82,170 children were in care in England in 2022 - 2% more than in 2021

• 2,950 of these children were adopted in 2022

• The number of children entering care in 2022 was up 9% from 20211

• The North East of England has the highest number of care-experienced children and young people in the country. There has been an increase of 34% of those coming into the care system in the North East since 2015, compared to a 3.5% increase in London. (DfE 2021).

Blue Cabin is the only creative charity in England that focuses all of its work on care-experienced people.

1 Gov.uk: www.explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions

Evidence2 shows that outcomes for care-experienced people can be transformed when they have regular and ongoing opportunities to develop positive relationships with the people in their lives. And we also know that the creative arts have been proven to improve people’s life chances.

The children, young people, carers and social work professionals Blue Cabin has worked with tell us they see and experience benefits including:

• Increased confidence

• New skills

• Stronger relationships

• A better understanding of care experience and identity

• Raised aspirations and new ambitions

• An ability to express feelings and emotions

That’s why Blue Cabin focuses all of its work on improving outcomes for careexperienced children and young people, by supporting them to develop positive relationships, understand their past and express their hopes for the future.

We see the creative potential in every care-experienced child and young person - and we support them and the adults in their lives to see this potential as well.

2 Petrie & Knight: www.singup.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Blog/PDFs/Sing_Up_Looked_After_Children_full_report.pdf / Dilon 2010: www.network.youthmusic.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/research/looked%20after%20children%20evidence%20 review2010.pdf / Blue Cabin reports: www.wearebluecabin.com/resources/type/report

Creativity is at the heart of all we do. It is central to our work with people and has the power to connect individuals, develop relationships and change lives for the better.

We believe in healthy, creative, transparent partnership working. We do this through being open to learning, and working with people and organisations, through listening and being open to new ideas.

We believe in honesty and we reflect this by being truthful, fair and genuine with everyone we work with.

We believe in asking questions, listening and learning alongside everyone we work with. We are comfortable to be challenged and challenge others.

Our programmes

Arts Award

Through Arts Award we support care-experienced children and young people to achieve a national qualification whilst developing their confidence and skills in creativity, communication and leadership. An Arts Award Discover in a Day pilot project saw children and young people in Darlington and Redcar take part in two days of animation, film-making and painting, with our Associate Artists. A six-week programme is also underway with virtual schools in Redcar and Cleveland.

www.wearebluecabin.com/project/arts-award

Our programmes offer repeated opportunities to experience a creative environment, enriched with music, movement, art, and games. We contribute to an increased sense of wellbeing and positive mental health through shared imagination and self-expression.

Artsmark Creative Consultation

Blue Cabin was commissioned to carry out a creative consultation with children and young people in the North East of England, as part of Arts Council England’s wider exploration into the potential use of the Artsmark programme in virtual schools. 26 children and young people, who receive support from virtual schools in Darlington, Hartlepool or Redcar and Cleveland, took part, sharing their views on creativity within their virtual school experience.

www.wearebluecabin.com/latest/creativity-in-virtualschools

“He had this whole new vocabulary around how he was feeling and his foster carer said he’d started to open up in a way he had never done before.”

Local authority staff member

Cool Things Darlington

Working with Darlington Virtual School, we’ve facilitated creative opportunities for care-experienced children aged between two and 16. Blue Cabin’s Associate Artists have led opportunities to take part in drama, visual arts and Arts Award activities, and the children and young people and their carers experienced performances by Darlington Hippodrome and Theatre Hullabaloo.

www.wearebluecabin.com/project/cool-thingsdarlington

www.darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk

www.theatrehullabaloo.org.uk

“[They] enjoyed trying new things and doing the activities together…[and] felt it had developed the communication with carer and young person.”

Gill Etherington, Darlington Virtual School

Creative Aid

In December 2022, Blue Cabin and Nepacs were awarded funding by the National Lottery Community Fund to deliver a creative arts programme with careexperienced young men serving sentences at Deerbolt Prison in County Durham. Over three years, Creative Aid will include artist-led workshops and support for participants to achieve an Arts Award accreditation. The project aims to support the young men to build stronger relationships with each other, their families and prison staff, and to give them a better chance of a positive future on release from prison.

www.wearebluecabin.com/project/creative-aid

“[Art is] helping you talk when no-one else is around. It’s an expression in many ways.”

Young man serving a sentence in Deerbolt Prison

Creative Life Story Work

We’ve partnered with local authorities and Professor Richard Rose of Therapeutic Life Story Work International to roll out this new way of delivering life story work in three local authority areas in the North East of England. Evaluation by Coram and Ipsos Mori has shown that Creative Life Story Work strengthens relationships between care-experienced children and young people and adults in their lives, and that 85% of local authority staff who responded to a survey thought that it is more effective than traditional life story work.

www.creativelifestorywork.com

“The new model has already shown how a more creative approach can encourage young people to explore their emotions, which in turn has a positive impact on their relationships with the adults in their lives.”

Councillor Gary Haley, Gateshead Council

The Studio of the Fostered Heroes

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council commissioned Blue Cabin to respond to an idea put forward by a member of its Children in Care Council, who wanted to raise awareness of what it’s like to be in care. The result was The Studio of the Fostered Heroes, a group whose ages ranged from eight to 21 years and who worked with Blue Cabin’s professional artists to make a six minute animated film sharing their experiences of being in care. The film was screened to Redcar and Cleveland’s staff and elected members and has been watched more than 1,000 times to date.

www.wearebluecabin.com/latest/children-and-youngpeople-from-redcar-and-cleveland-make-short-filmsharing-experiences-of-being-in-care

“I learned a lot about myself during this process. One thing is that no matter how hard it gets I am not alone, and I know other young people in similar situations.”

Studio of the Fostered Heroes member

This is the Place

This programme of music for children and young people aged 0 to 17, together with the adults in their lives, takes place at cultural venues in Darlington, giving care-experienced families the opportunity to experience the town’s cultural offer together, perhaps for the first time. It includes training for foster carers and Darlington Borough Council staff, allowing them to continue music-making with children at home and outside of the sessions, and children are given a song bag and song book which they can take with them if they transition to a new home.

www.wearebluecabin.com/project/this-is-the-place

The Blue Cabin team

Our core team

Blue Cabin’s core team includes two full time staff and four part time staff.

We believe in the value of investing in our team, through our approach to training, supervision, reflection, support and fair pay.

Jenny Young

Director and Designated Safeguarding Officer

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/jenny-young

Joanne Stoddart

Local Authority Specialist

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/joanne-stoddart

Gloria Raine

Project Coordinator

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/gloria-raine

Dawn Williams

Strategic Lead

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/dawn-williams

Amy Armstrong

Programme Coordinator and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Officer

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/amy-armstrong

Nic Golightly Artist in Residence

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/nic-golightly

Our Associates

The core team is supported by two freelance Associates.

Our therapeutic team

Our Therapeutic team is helping guide Blue Cabin’s work towards becoming a trauma-informed organisation.

Jane Gray Associate

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/jane-gray

Lucy Ridley Associate

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/lucy-ridley

Matt Stalker

Therapeutic Supervisor

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/matt-stalker

Louise Wicks

Therapeutic Supervisor

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/louise-wicks

Blue Cabin Associate Artists

Our cross-art form Associate Artists are experts in working with care-experienced children and young people, and the adults in their lives. They nurture connections with children, young people and their carers, building bonds of safety and trust and encouraging friendship, support and empathy to flourish. Our artists help us actively create an engaged community which nurtures, nourishes and supports.

Alison McGowan

Associate Artist

www.wearebluecabin.com/ people/alison-mcgowan

Elena Miller

Associate Artist

www.wearebluecabin.com/ people/elena-miller

Lisette Auton

Associate Artist

www.wearebluecabin.com/ people/lisette-auton

Michelle Wood

Associate Artist

www.wearebluecabin.com/ people/michelle-wood

Nic Golightly

Associate Artist

www.wearebluecabin.com/ people/nic-golightly

Pady O’Connor

Associate Artist

www.wearebluecabin.com/ people/pady-oconnor

Paul T Murray

Associate Artist

www.wearebluecabin.com/ people/paul-t-murray

Ruth Mary Johnson

Associate Artist

www.wearebluecabin.com/ people/ruth-johnson

“The care that runs through Blue Cabin is very special and I feel I am playing a small part in work that is very big and important.”

Ruth Mary Johnson, Associate Artist

Volunteers and interns

We’ve also been supported this year by Hannah Earl, our first intern, who joined us for eight weeks, funded by Creative Fuse and our very first volunteer, Noah Jutton.

“I am fascinated by all of Blue Cabin’s work as it helps me understand the therapeutic effects of creative experiences and lets me be part of these experiences.”

Noah Jutton, Volunteer

Governance

Adam Kent

Chair and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Officer

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/adam-kent

Blue Cabin has an established Board of Trustees with a wealth of experience in education, the arts, media, business and health, research and community music.

Ryan Humphrey Trustee

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/ryan-humphrey

Mark Dibble

Vice Chair, Trustee and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Officer

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/mark-dibble

Sedil Kilic Trustee

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/sedil-killic

Catherine Hearne Trustee

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/catherine-hearne

“I want to be able to use my voice to share my experiences and motivate other young people from a care-experienced background, and demonstrate that there are ways to overcome the barrier to leadership that so many often face.”

Eleanor Mooney Trustee

www.wearebluecabin.com/people/eleanor-mooney

Sedil Kilic, Trustee

Funding

Core funders

We’re incredibly grateful to the following core funders who have supported Blue Cabin this year:

Project funders

We’re equally grateful to our project funders who have supported our various programmes of work:

Financial information

Breakdown of costs for 2022/23 financial year

51% Project delivery, resources and venue hire

32% Wages, national insurance and pension costs

17% Support costs

What’s next

We know our work has had a positive impact on the lives of care-experienced children, young people and adults, and we want to reach more people in the coming year. Here’s some of what we’re planning.

Artful Alliance

As a result of this year’s Artsmark Creative Consultation, Arts Council England has awarded Blue Cabin funding to deliver a national action-learning programme bringing together Virtual Schools and creative organisations. To find out more visit www.wearebluecabin.com/project/artful-alliance.

Impact framework

We’re working with tialt (There is an Alternative)1 to develop a Blue Cabin impact framework and to identify appropriate ways to gather evidence of change and outcomes for our participants.

Trauma-informed accreditation

Following completion of Trauma Awareness training with Kazzum Arts2, we have developed a timeline to gain accreditation with One Small Thing3 within the next 12 months and have developed an informal learning network with Unique Voice4 and Nepacs5 to support us on this journey.

Experts By Experience

Scoping is underway for the development of a new Experts by Experience group to help inform Blue Cabin’s work. We envisage the group will include people in care, fostering, adoption and social work.

1 www.tialt.org

2 www.kazzum.org

3 www.onesmallthing.org.uk

Volunteer development

We’re keen to build on what we learnt from our first volunteer placement and hope to expand Blue Cabin’s volunteering offer by bringing on board five more volunteers.

Potential for growth

We are at a very exciting point in our journey. More people are learning about our work and more organisations are wanting to work with us. To respond to this emerging need, the Blue Cabin team and board will focus on mapping potential growth in 2023/24.

Environmental Working Group

Blue Cabin is continuing to monitor its environmental impact and put in place measures to reduce carbon emissions. A new working group will support this work.

Expansion of Blue Cabin Board of Trustees

Recruitment is planned to further strengthen our Board of Trustees with a new appointment.

Collaboration with the Sing Up Foundation

Blue Cabin will work with the Sing Up Foundation6 on a new set of resources to support people running music-making which aims to improve the wellbeing of children and young people.

4 www.uniquevoice.org

5 www.nepacs.co.uk

6 www.singupfoundation.org