Home and belonging: mapping what matters when moving on

Senses of home and belonging are closely linked to feelings of security, connection and positive identity for young people in residential childcare. Following the delivery of a number of workshops by the authors with residential care staff and care experienced young people, this article presents our reflections on the concepts of home and belonging. We explore what home and belonging mean to young people and how residential child care can provide the conditions for the experience of home and a sense of belonging through care worker-young person relationships, grounded in everyday activities and exchanges. We reflect on some of the consequences for the sector if we take these ideas seriously. The findings of the Independent Care Review in Scotland provides some hope for a broader consensus around the centrality of relationships in Scottish care, though there are significant systemic challenges to translating these into practice, not least the ways in which historically risk-averse practice cultures can accommodate a shift towards the more autonomous professional identity required to enable residential care workers to foreground relationships in their practice.