Join us for a thought-provoking and inspiring conference designed for professionals, carers, educators, and advocates dedicated to supporting young people in care. This event provides a platform to explore new ideas, share best practices, and collaborate on ways to empower young people to achieve their ambitions.
Featuring keynotes (including from care experienced public speaker, Ian Thomas), insightful discussions, and valuable networking opportunities, the conference promises to be a meaningful experience for all who attend.
Book your place now and receive updates as speakers and sessions are announced.
Programme
8.45am - Arrival and registration
9.15am - Welcome by Professor Mark Simpson (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Teesside University)
9.20am - Keynote: Ian Thomas
10.30am - Comfort break
10:40am - Teesside University student services and care leaver support
11.00am - Breakout session one
12.00pm - LUNCH
1.00pm - Keynote: Luke Rodgers - The Care Leaders
2.00pm - Breakout session two
3.00pm - Care-experienced Q&A panel
3.20pm - Plenary
3.30pm - Conference close
Keynote: Ian Thomas - Redefining pathways to education
Ian will share his inspiring journey to becoming a PhD student, a path that began after leaving school with no formal qualifications and reading his first book while in prison at the age of 18. Drawing on over two decades of personal development and recovery - from trauma, the care system, and addiction - Ian will present a psychosocial analysis rooted in his lived experience. His talk will explore themes of healing, resilience, and educational achievement, offering a powerful reflection on transformation and growth.
Profile
Ian is a PhD student at Birmingham City University and a qualified Social Worker with an MA in Criminology. With nearly two decades of experience and deep lived expertise in care, justice, and recovery, he combines professional practice with research and public speaking. Ian has published on fostering, custody deaths, and anti-oppressive practice, and has presented at TEDx and international conferences.
Keynote: Luke Rodgers (The Care Leaders) - Two timetables: understanding the impact of social care and school on children in care
This session explores the clash between school and social care systems and how this affects children in care. Using real-life examples and trauma-informed approaches, the session will help practitioners understand how trauma shapes behaviour, how our responses can support or escalate situations, and how language and identity are connected. Attendees will leave with practical tools to better support care-experienced children emotionally, behaviourally, and academically.
Profile
Luke Rodgers BEM is the CEO of The Care Leaders, a lived experience leader, and an award-winning social entrepreneur. He has 10 years of experience in co-designing projects that enhance the experiences of children in and leaving care. As a facilitator, Luke has worked with the Department for Education, The Fostering Network, and was invited to be a Fellow at the Saïd Business School, Skoll Centre for Social Enterprise at the University of Oxford in 2020. In 2023, The Care Leaders won the ‘Workforce Development Award’ from Children and Young People Now, for work that combines lived and professional insights in developing people and projects.
Breakout sessions
Something familiar - Dr Rachel Close
Social work senior lecturer Dr Rachel Close will present scenes from her upcoming feature length documentary, 'Something Familiar' followed by a Q&A discussion.
While trying to help a fellow adoptee find her birth mother, British-Romanian filmmaker Rachel delves back into her own family story looking for healing and closure. Launching an international search for her missing sisters she unearths a tragic legacy of abuse and exploitation. Can she harness the creative power of self-authorship to interrogate the ghosts of her past and write a new script for her future?
Something Familiar has been selected by Circle Women Doc Accelerator to present at this year's Cannes film festival and has been selected for the BFI Doc Society's Works in Progress at Sheffield DocFest.
Rachel was adopted from Romania as a baby and spent her teenage years in and out of the UK care system before going to university. On completing her BA she went on to complete two master's degrees at Teesside University and a PhD at the University of Central Lancashire which focuses on trauma-informed approaches to domestic abuse service provision.
Let there be light - Blue Cabin
Blue Cabin supports care experienced people to develop and strengthen relationships with people in their lives through trauma informed creative activities.
Join associate artist Nic Golightly for this creative and hands-on session which will showcase the Blue Cabin approach, highlighting the importance of careful facilitation when planning and delivering various creative activities with care experienced children and young people. It’ll also be fun. No previous creative experience required - just an openness to put pen to paper!
Social capital and me - Ian Thomas
Social capital is the adhesive that binds life in the modern world. Yet, its unequal distribution often leads to the marginalisation of certain groups. While rarely intentional, this imbalance means many care leavers enter adulthood facing significant socioeconomic challenges, one of which is reduced access to higher education.
This workshop invites participants on a reflective and experiential journey to explore their own social capital. Through guided activities, attendees will deepen their awareness of their personal networks and gain insight into the transformative power of lived experience.
Tools for schools - Luke Rodgers
Tools for Schools equips education professionals with practical strategies to support care-experienced children in school settings. The session blends lived experience with evidence-based approaches to help professionals respond to trauma-related behaviours with both structure and empathy. Central to the workshop is “The Moralist” approach - a balanced method that bridges strict behavioural techniques and nurturing responses, promoting inclusive and trauma-informed learning environments.
Participants will explore key theories on trauma, attachment, and brain development, and learn how survival responses manifest. Through compelling stories and hands-on exercises, the workshop offers tools such as emotion coaching, profile reframing, and de-escalation strategies. Attendees will leave with the confidence to build trusting relationships, set compassionate boundaries, and create safe spaces for care-experienced young people to thrive.