Interweaving the narrative voices of care-leavers in the secondary analyses reported in this book (Chapters 3–6, and summarised in Chapter 7), this chapter provides a detailed account of philosopher Michael Bratman’s ‘remarkable trio’ model of planning agency, followed by a reformulation of one aspect of Bratman’s model – the cross-temporal aspect, based on the wide range of experience of time and planning discussed by young people in this book, as well as a wider literature on subjective and alternative time. Interplaying with young people’s voices summarised in Chapter 7, this chapter reflects on each aspect of a non-dogmatic three-aspects model of planning (what matters, shared deliberation, and a sense of personal time) focused on young people with experience of compounded adversity. Each aspect is regarded as a potential strength (in contrast to the idea that lack of future orientation might be regarded as a vulnerability or deficit requiring an intervention). The chapter ends with an account of expressive logics and counterlogics for planning: this dynamic logic may be regarded as forming a potential basis for practice-based collaborative and co-design work on planning during transition from out-of-home care (see Chapter 10).
How do young people transitioning from out-of-home care, with their histories of multiple adversities, plan their future lives? Some may feel confident and well-enough resourced to plan ahead, but some are understandably sceptical of future-oriented, goal-based planning. Based on qualitative research with care-leavers in the UK, What Matters and Who Matters to Young People Leaving Care: A New Approach to Planning interweaves research findings with a range of different theoretical formulations on young people’s reflexivity, planning, and emotion. Via a detailed analysis (in four central chapters) of the diverse voices of young people leaving care, the book develops an innovative three-aspects approach to planning, recognising care leavers’ richly reflexive accounts of (1) what matters and who matters (for example, my family matters), (2) shared deliberation and shared planning (for example, with friends, family members, professionals), and (3) a sense of personal time. Young people’s own deeply expressive formulations about the impact of repeated emotional ruptures inform – empirically and theoretically – the three-aspects planning approach, including how we might re-imagine time and planning. In a final chapter, which focuses on young people’s voices and planning, co-design of aftercare/extended care services is foregrounded, bringing together ideas from relationally oriented co-design in environmental sustainability, with ideas from partnerships with young people living in severely adverse circumstances. With this cross-fertilisation of ideas, the final chapter tentatively applies the notion of ‘methodological sensitivities for co-producing knowledge through enduring trustful partnerships’ to the co-design of planning with young people in transition from out-of-home care.The EPDF and EPUB are available open access under a CC BY NC ND licence. This publication was supported by the University of Essex’s open access fund.How do young people transitioning from care plan their future lives? Planning is usually thought of as requiring clear goals and ‘future orientation’, but how might planning be regarded by young people whose wishes, hopes and plans have been repeatedly dashed? In this book Peter Appleton builds on research interviews with care-experienced young adults, and on cross-disciplinary theories of planning and of emotions, to develop a creative and non-dogmatic three-aspects model of planning for young people leaving care.A valuable resource for practitioners, researchers and educators, this book puts forward a powerful case to think more broadly and flexibly about transition planning with care-leavers, placing the voices of young people at its heart.EPDF and EPUB are available open access under CC BY NC ND licence. This publication was supported by University of Essex’s open access fund. Peter Appleton builds on research interviews with care-experienced young adults, and on cross-disciplinary theories of planning and of emotions, to develop a model of planning for young people leaving care.