What is Inspire?
Inspire aims to help adults feel more confident, informed, and prepared to have meaningful conversations with young people from care experienced backgrounds about education and career pathways after school, such as college, apprenticeships, and university, from an earlier stage.
These conversations are important because care leavers face a significant educational attainment gap when compared to their peers. This shows up as lower GCSE grades and reduced participation in further and higher education. On top of this, 60% of students who are care experienced said they received no information about going to university and the adults in their lives were not able to support them when exploring education choices after they left school. In Southwark, just 30% of children in care achieved GCSE grades 9 to 4 in English, compared to 73% of their non care experienced peers. By sharing insights and identifying where support is needed, together we can help shape more effective resources and guidance to drive up educational outcomes. NNECL wants to ensure every young person has the encouragement and information they need to explore their future education and career plans after school with confidence.
Who can take part?
✔ You are 18 years old or older
✔ Be someone who has supported or wants to support a young person from a care background with their education
✔ You live or work in Southwark
Do I have to take part?
No, taking part is optional. Anyone who takes part can stop at any time and doesn’t need to explain why. If there’s anything NNECL can do to support someone to stay involved in Inspire, you can email us at [email protected].
What do I need to know about Inspire?
The Inspire pilot has three main parts for adults:
- A survey
- Development of a suite of tools
- An online focus group
There’s also a survey and focus group just for young people. This way, NNECL can find out what support young people with care experience they've had (or haven’t had) during their educational journeys.
The pilot runs until August 2025. After that, we’ll look at what worked, what didn’t, and whether Inspire has the potential to make a real, lasting difference to the educational journeys of young people from care backgrounds.
What do I need to know about the survey?
NNECL wants to invite adults who support young people from a care experienced background to share how confident they feel supporting young people into education. There’s also a separate survey just for young people, to find out what support young people with care experience they've had (or haven’t had) during their educational journeys. The survey takes around 10–15 minutes to complete.
All responses are private, and any data shared will be anonymised - no one will know who said what. If you say something in the survey that makes us curious, we may be in touch to find out more.
What do I need to know about the suite of tools?
NNECL aims to develop a suite of tools for Southwark’s adults and community champions who support young people from care backgrounds with their education and career journeys. These tools will be shaped by our experience of working with young people and education institutions as well as young people in care in Southwark.
What do I need to know about the focus group?
NNECL will run an online focus group with 15 adults and community champions from Southwark to help shape the Inspire tools.. If you are interested in joining a focus group, you can register your interest at the end of the survey. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to take part. NNECL plans to run the adult focus group in July 2025.
How do I sign up to get involved in Inspire?
You can sign up to inspire by filling out the contact form, or by reaching out to the NNECL team anytime via [email protected]
How do I help a young person sign up for the Inspire pilot?
Please direct young people to the FAQ’s young people page here. They can sign up to inspire by filling out the contact form or by getting in touch with the team via [email protected].
What if I have questions or need support?
No problem! You can reach out to the NNECL team anytime at [email protected]
