Abstract
This thesis explores the extent to which the lives of care-experienced people can be characterised by deprivation. The research uses data from children in care and care leavers in Surrey and professionals from Surrey County Council. Using data from five professional interviews, and 172 questionnaire responses across three surveys, this thesis finds that aspects of care experiences in Surrey can be usefully understood through two broad themes of disadvantage. One relates to the existing research and literature focus, attachment theory and attachment-related experiences. The other contributes to an emerging and limited field of study exploring different forms of deprivation that do not exclusively apply to relationships or attachments.
The thesis demonstrates that including a broader range of deprivations when attempting to understand the experiences of children in care helps understand some forms of deprivation that are not usefully explained with the dominant attachment theory approach. Specifically, viewing a broad range of disadvantages throughout the lived experience of childhood demonstrates that certain forms of disadvantage may be more characteristic of a particular stage of care. For example, forms of social and cultural deprivation appeared to be more common in older children and care leavers.
Overall, the thesis finds that whilst many experiences can be usefully understood by widening the approach to deprivations to explore those beyond attachments, characterising the whole care experience as one of overarching disadvantage may be unhelpful. Exploring vignettes of lived experience suggests that childhoods in care are complex and multifaceted and consist of pockets of deprivation and pockets of advantage or positive experience, indicating that they are not entirely dissimilar from childhoods outside of care.