The "Key" to Successful Transitions for Young People Leaving Residential Child Care: The Role of the Keyworker

In the absence of mandatory planning and support to assist all young people who leave care in Ireland, after-care provision is a ‘‘neglected’’ area of service provision and has been criticised for being inconsistent and ad hoc. The benefits of keyworker support for young people making the transition out of care is more clearly articulated within the literature and across policy statements and is firmly embedded as a model of good practice in working with young people in residential care. The study reported here sets out to conduct an in-depth exploration of the concept of keyworking. This is achieved by engaging young care-leavers, residential care providers and after-care support workers in qualitative interviews. By asking young people and care providers about their experiences of keyworking, it attempts to drill down into both the benefits and possible downsides of this practice model. The findings and discussion presented here are based on the pilot stage of this study, and although the findings can only be regarded as tentative in nature some important issues have emerged from the pilot stage as reported here