Internationally, there has been growing interest in the lives of care-experienced youth and literature has highlighted the more significant needs and vulnerabilities of this population (Mannay et al., 2017). Care-experienced youth are routinely identified as among the most disadvantaged within society and ‘at risk’ of negative outcomes (e.g. relating to health, education, and life chances). Research shows that care-experienced young people are likely to have been exposed to greater incidents of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) – including physical and sexual abuse, and neglect – and that those who have experienced such trauma can suffer poorer physical and mental health (Denton et al., 2016; Dye, 2018). Such concerns are exacerbated by the fact that the number of young people being placed in the care of the state is increasing internationally (UNICEF, 2023). Concerns regarding the challenges care-experienced youth face have also led to a growing interest in activities that can better support their positive development, including sport/PA. However, there remain concerns about the piecemeal nature of such opportunities for care-experienced youth at a local level and, notably, their capacity to access formal, organised sport activities (Sandford et al., 2020).

This paper presents early findings from an ongoing study that seeks to examine care-experienced young people’s engagements with sport clubs. The Right to Be Active ‘Clubs and Coaches’ project (also referred to as R2BA2), builds on a previous study – the Right to Be Active project (R2BA) - which focused more broadly on the sport and physical activity (PA) experiences of care-experienced young people (see Sandford et al., 2021). Findings from the first R2BA project highlighted the complex social landscapes that care-experienced youth navigate on a day-to-day basis and noted the significance of people, places, and activities in shaping these engagements (Sandford et al., 2020; Sandford et al., 2021). For care-experienced youth to have ‘good’ experiences of sport/PA there needed to be an intersection of these key factors. However, the complex structure of the care context in England resulted, often, in a shifting landscape where opportunity and access to activities were problematic (Sandford et al., 2021). Consequently, some ‘missing spaces’ were evident for many care-experienced young people – with a notable example being sport clubs. Indeed, it was apparent that for many individuals the transient nature of their lives meant that it was difficult to both access and maintain connections with these more formal sporting contexts. However, those who were able to successfully engage with them often noted positive outcomes, such as personal growth, skill development and the acquisition of social capital. Thus, there is significant support for sport clubs to potentially aid positive youth development (e.g. Holt, 2016; Morgan et al., 2019) but these benefits are only available if young people can access these spaces.

Sport clubs are key spaces that are well placed to provide care-experienced youth with a sense of stability that is often absent from their lives and to facilitate valuable opportunities for developing positive relationships with peers and trusted adults, such as coaches (Quarmby et al., 2022). However, while there is a growing evidence base to draw on in relation to care-experienced youths’ engagements with sport/PA and physical education (O’Donnell et al., 2020; Sandford et al., 2021), there is currently a dearth of literature focusing on sport clubs and/or the role of coaches in supporting potential development. In focusing on sports clubs and the policies that shape practice within these, as well as the knowledge, perspectives and experiences of both coaches and care-experienced young people, it is intended that the R2BA2 ‘Clubs and Coaches’ project can help to address some of these gaps in knowledge.

The aim of the R2BA2 (Clubs and Coaches) project is to explore sport clubs as ‘missing spaces’ for care-experienced youth. This is considered to be important given the developmental potential of sport clubs and the difficulties reported by care-experienced youth in accessing and maintaining connections to these contexts. To this end, the project seeks to address the following questions: 1. What can we learn from the limited existing research about care-experienced young people’s engagements with sport clubs?; 2. What do sport clubs/coaches both know and need to know about care-experienced young people in order to shape positive sport/PA experiences?; and 3. What can we learn from care-experienced youth about their engagements with sport clubs that could shape future practice within these contexts? To address these questions, a mixed methods approach comprising a scoping review of relevant policy documents, online surveys, interviews/focus groups and interactive workshops has been designed. This presentation will present data only from the first phase of the project, which was the scoping review of policy documents relating to provision for care-experienced young people’s engagements with sports clubs. Drawing on information from Sport England (a non-departmental public body with responsibility for encouraging and supporting participation in sport), a database was generated of recognised sport National Governing Bodies (NGBs) responsible for delivery within England (n=200). The website for each NGB was accessed and searched for relevant policy documents that might inform practice with care-experienced youth, focusing, in particular, on issues of equality, diversity and inclusion, safeguarding and welfare. These documents then underwent a qualitative content analysis (Flick, 2009), aided by utilising keywords for searching such as ‘care-experienced’, ‘children in care’, ‘looked-after children’ (a legislative term often used to identify care-experienced young people in England), ‘trauma’ and ‘duty of care’. Documents containing these terms were then read for contextual detail, with relevant information being transferred to the Excel spreadsheet detailing all entries. A further analysis of data within this spreadsheet was then undertaken to draw out key themes and ideas of relevance to the study.

Initial findings suggest that the vast majority of NGB policies (n=162, 82%) have no overt reference to provision for care-experienced young people, with only 9 (4.5%) NGBs specifically making reference to this youth population. Instead, care-experienced young people are more likely to be visible as part of a broader efforts to recognise marginalised groups, address known disadvantage and ensure the inclusion of those with protected characteristics. Where this is the case, most references to care-experienced youth come via safeguarding policies and speak to the ‘duty of care’ that organisations have for those young people that they work with. Within these, there is some (limited) reference to recognising trauma and understanding the potential impact of this on young people, though this is largely framed within reporting structures. This scoping review raises some interesting points for further consideration. Firstly, it is notable that where NGBs specifically refer to care-experienced young people, these are often sports that would not be considered ‘mainstream’ or those typically accessed by/accessible to care-experienced youth (e.g., motorsports, aquathlon, fencing and skiing). Secondly, it is evident that few NGBs have bespoke policies but rather that there is some sharing of generic policy (e.g., around safeguarding and inclusion), which perhaps contributes to the lack of specific recognition of populations - such as care-experienced young people – with specific needs (e.g., related to the impact of trauma). Finally, the identification of protected characteristics as a key factor influencing efforts towards inclusion is interesting. While some local authorities in England have moved towards identifying care status as a protected characteristic (see MacAlister, 2022), this is not yet a standardised approach – though the analysis would suggest that it could help to facilitate care-experienced young people’s access to sports clubs. These points of interest will help to inform further phases of the study.

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