I have listed below some key insights I found along this journey through User Research and data collected. This is an open account 
on findings as well as failures.

What Surprised me
User Research techniques I found to be very interesting as the tone had to be conversational, understanding, two-way and most importantly, as we had limited understanding, the questions had to follow and highlight what just said. I have done interviews before and the insights were key for primary research. Our first interview with a former social worker (participant A) highlighted something we had not considered, language dialects. Participant A had said that she had requested a translator for a youth in care, but the translator did not speak the correct dialect of that language leading to another barrier.

Social workers missed more appointments with young people in care. Not the other way around. This was most often attributed to displacement of young people in care.

A key issue that resonated with me was the Education Plan. One interview participant (participant C), said that her education plan was key for her but was an almost throwaway element quite early on in her care plan. She knew she wanted to go into further education at 14 and it was instigated. She felt blessed that she had stated this 
as there was no way to amend this after the fact. Think of those who were not so lucky in this tick box exercise. Likewise, Participant B had not considered her school prom and that money would need to have been put away for that. As a result she was not able to attend the event causing more stress as her careworker should have known/ considered this if dialogue were open.

Trust was a factor. In some cases discovering that a foster carer is being paid to care for the youth, it created another break in terms of 'no one really cares, they do teh job just for money.

Positives included participant B openly admitted that she came from a rascist background and she was placed with an Ethiopian foster family which is according to Social Worker participants, to be avoided. Participant B highlighted that she expereienced what a real family is like there and they supported her helping her overcome those initial feelings. They were a family of faith and she saw positives in religious faith and acceptance.

Offboarding was a process that included young people who were deemed 'ready' placed in a half way house where they were able to manage money for shopping and bills BUT the sudden shock of going from a noisy home environment to a quiet one was disconcerting and was highlighted in the data.

What did I learn?
Advocacy programe came up a lot with Social Workers in primary research with the charity 'Become' but less so with people formerly in care. We discovered that aside form Advocacy services varying in different Local Authorities (LA), there was a sliding scale as to when it was offered. I tested the term with all participants and the definition was different each time.

We thought Social Woker networks would reveal perfect insights NOT TRUE! Our research uncovered that SW's avoided these 'public square' meetings as data could be used against them...sigh.

What worked fantastically well!
I pride myself in deep dive unauthordox research. I was the oldest member of the team by 10 years. I bring a wealth of insight from my time creating book projects, working with authors, editors, sensitivity readers and the like. I have very varied reading habits and from youth I have been very introsoective and critical. I overthink on occasion wanting to look at every perspective, that said, I was dissapointed that some streams of research were laughed at by the team as 'no one under a certain age uses FB', but I contunied on that path. FB was very useful in that my profile there is separate to my work. I decided that I needed to tailor all my requestes to the different groups i'm part of. I'm a member of a reading group, comic-book groups, Movie groups and parent groups. The members are in the regions of 15k, much more reach than I had anywhere else. I created variations on my request which took time using the themes of the group as the premise! To my elation Admins of a few groups highlighted my request giving their support for this 'noble venture' I had 30 responses from members who were social workers, carers, live-in carers and partners of social workers all over the country. As a fellow fan of movies/books/comics/art they were very open to giving me time as I was not a faceless person asking for their time. Out of the entire team I found the most participants for the surveys and interviews.

Interview Participant B was discovered during my vast net thrown for participants in the local area via WhatsApp . She is a parent of two boys at a school local to me. She has a few medical issues and a son who requires more of her time. She was the best and most lucrative participant as she had experience on both sides as she was in care as well as qualifying as a social worker. She was very vocal and opinionated. She was keen to support the program. I made myself at her disposal to drive her to and from the research, interviews and prototyping as well as role play sessions. She challenged ideas. 

Collaboration
I have in all aspects of my career brought collaboration to consistently siloed departments. See Case studies 1 and 2. A diverse team brings unique insights and understanding and was the bst part of the Social Heads project. Everyone brought somthging from their uniquer background to the table. I brought a different way of thinking (the rock the boat concepts!) Why not? being my key phrase. Finding common ground and something I would never had thought of was adaily occurance. I told the team when we finished that as a team I think we 8 could accomplish anything.

What would I do differently
Time constraints led to some failures on my part. I managed to throw a vast net for Primary Research to catch as many participants as possible. I connected to groups membered by people who were in care, social workers, charities, Managing Directors of charities. I placed a lot of emphasis on LinkedIn which proved a failure for two reasons, A, My profile as a 500+ Art director in the publishing industry 20+ years led to confusion as my profile is very different to the research We were conducting. I had many profile views from participants I approached who did not get in contact. B, I made contact with Become during primary research! Though I could use insights provided, they had gotten in touch with me after reseach was concluded and we were creating Personas. 

As this subject was close to my heart (people who need solutions), I was aware that the people who are involved in the care system have very little time to spare to be interviewed and though I had 7 more potential interviewees they did try to sanction time to discuss. I made myself available to them but I decided not to be too pushy beyond the sporadic emails and calls. I think about this a lot. If I had more resources I could have made this work.

In closing
My favourite letterpress printer, Amos Paul wrote; 
PROCEED AND BE BOLD! In this project I confirmed that my future is in Service Design in the pursuit of a fairer more understanding world.