2025 wrapped
We can say with confidence, 2025 was a big year for NNECL
As 2025 draws to a close, we can say with confidence, it’s been a big year for NNECL. A year where we’ve delivered, held our nerve, and stayed true to our purpose in what has been a particularly tough climate for charities. Despite the challenges, this year has been filled with moments of real pride and progress.
In November, NNECL was honoured to receive the Children & Young People Now Leaving Care Award for the NNECL Quality Mark. This award recognises the initiative that has made the greatest impact in supporting young people leaving care to make a smooth and successful transition into adulthood, a powerful affirmation of the work our members and partners do every day.
That same month, we hosted our Annual Conference, bringing together our community to share learning, challenge thinking, and build momentum. We were delighted that Helen Hayes MP, Chair of the Education Select Committee, delivered our opening keynote, a clear signal that the voices of care-experienced learners are being heard at the highest levels.
2025 also marked an important milestone for the Quality Mark, with the University of Cambridge becoming our 50th awarded institution, recognising its commitment and plans to improve the experience and outcomes of care-experienced students throughout their time at the University.
We gave evidence at the Education Select Committee, twice, ensuring that the realities of care-experienced students enrolled in colleges and universities were firmly on the agenda. We began the exploratory phase of Inspire, an ambitious programme aiming to increase awareness of post-16 education for children in care, while equipping the adults and community champions around them to support their aspirations and success.
We launched and delivered our first Big Give fundraising campaign, raising vital unrestricted funding at a time when flexibility matters more than ever. The London Assembly recommended that all universities in London work with NNECL, and we are now embedded in this important pan-London work.
And crucially, we have continued to support young people through our colleges and university partners as well as directly supporting those who came to us with serious concerns about their experiences in education.
Building the support care-experienced learners and estranged learners need, from enrolment in their vocational and academic studies to graduation and beyond, remains at the heart of everything we do. This year alone, we reached over 5,000 care-experienced and estranged learners across further and higher education.
Alongside these achievements, we’ve also felt the challenges keenly.
Like many charities, we don’t have the luxury of not worrying about money. Increasingly project-focused funding limits our ability to contribute to vital but unfunded work, particularly challenging when our mission is about systemic change, an area where funding is often hardest to secure. And while we are experts in our field, we don’t have the marketing heft needed to ensure every care-experienced young person knows what a truly supportive learning environment should look like and we can’t give local authorities, colleges and universities the insights they constantly ask for without compensation.
We remain concerned that not all care-experienced learners are studying at institutions that fully meet their needs. Membership of NNECL is voluntary, our approach is proven to reduce drop-out rates and improve attainment, yet colleges and universities engage with us not out of obligation, but because they are visionary, committed to change, and willing to invest in practices evidenced to make a real difference for young people.
As a care-experience-led team, we show up in spaces where trauma-aware practice is not always understood, and too often, not extended to us, even as we advocate for young people. When our lived experience is overlooked, it mirrors the barriers our young people face. By speaking out and insisting on being heard, we model the change we want to see: environments where care-experienced young people are respected, supported, and empowered to thrive.
We are, at our core, an optimistic organisation. We believe in progress. We believe in people. And we believe in the power of education to change lives. To every partner, supporter, donor, funder, trustee, member, friend, volunteer, ally and changemaker who worked with us, championed us, and helped bring our work to the young people we do this for, thank you.
We go into 2026 with ambition, focus, and plans to continue driving the systemic change needed to improve educational outcomes for young people with experience of care, so they can not only access education, but truly thrive through it and beyond.
Together, we keep going.
See you in 2026, Denise, Sian and Shaunna
