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Life Story Work

Life Story Work was developed by the Trust's Learning Academy, which brings together all learning and development opportunities for social workers, both before and after qualification.

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Why life story work matters

Life story work is a vital part of helping children and young people understand their identity, experiences and journey through care.

Life story work sits at the heart of good social work practice. Every child and young person has the right to understand their story and the decisions that have shaped their life. When done well, life story work helps children make sense of their past, understand their present and build confidence in their future.  

Life story work is not a single intervention or task. It is a continuous, shared responsibility across the workforce and begins as soon as we become involved in a child’s life. By embedding life story work across practice, we ensure that children’s experiences, memories and relationships are captured in a way that supports identity, belonging and emotional healing over time.  

Our approach is grounded in honest and sensitive storytelling, led by trusted relationships and centred around the voice and experience of the child. It supports children to process loss and separation, build self-understanding and develop a stronger sense of self.  

Diane's Story

My name’s Diane Barton. I like to be known as Di. I’ve got a 13-year-old daughter, a three-year-old son who I’ve adopted, and I’m currently fostering an eight-month-old baby girl.

We fostered Dino when he was one month old. Right at the start of his little journey, we started taking pictures and collecting days out leaflets and things like that. His first trip in a trolley, his first swimming lesson. We had Dino for two years as foster carers, and when he was up for adoption, it was a case of us thinking, he’s took our hearts, and it was a no-brainer, basically. We decided that we wanted to keep him and be his forever family.

And during that process, it was a case of carrying on with the pictures for his adoption social worker so she could carry on with his life story. We just carried on taking the photos like you would any other normal child and just present them over, and that’s how they made his little life story book. It states that he’s now fostered and the reason why, and then it talks about his family, talks about why he’s in foster care, and why he’s not been able to be with his mom and dad. And then it goes on to starting his life with us as a foster family.

So there’s memories of all the things he got up to during his foster time with us. And then it goes on to the adoption side of it. So it’s got his adoption social worker, it’s got his own social worker, it’s got us as a family, it’s got where he lives, it’s got his bedroom, it’s got his house. So it’s all things that are related to him and where he’s come from and where he’s going to. In his life story book, there is information regarding his birth parents that’s quite sensitive.

He needs to be of a certain age for him to understand that. But we have that tool for when he does become of an age where he does understand, and he can understand why. We’ve got that tool to help us to explain to him regarding his parents and why he was placed in foster care. The pictures and the stories that are in there hopefully will help him understand that he’s had a really good life and that he’s loved and he’s cared for and wanted, even though he had a bad start. The book will give us the tools to be able to communicate that in a child-friendly way. It’s important to the child because it gives them a sense of who they are and where they’ve been and why. I think it also gives them a sense of self, that they belong.

Steph's Story

I’m Stephanie Miles. My daughter grew up, left home. There was a big gap. So I just thought it would be lovely just to have children back in the house again. So Mickey came here when he was three weeks old. He’d been in hospital for three weeks, so he came straight from hospital.

So he arrived from the hospital in a little car seat with two plastic carrier bags, and I think that’s the first thing that pulled on my heartstrings, that this little boy had showed up with two plastic carrier bags with just some stuff from the hospital.

So yeah, we emptied all of that. I put all his precious stuff aside, blankets, little baby grows, to go in a box. So I knew he would need to take that with him. My first introduction of life story work was when we were training, three-day training. Met Chris, who was a foster carer. She fostered babies, so she showed us some photo books of the journey when the babies first came.

Just everything, obviously, all the experiences they had, first Christmas, all the way through to whenthey met their new parents, and there were photos in there of them with their new parents. So you just got a sense of their journey when they were younger.

Mickey was a baby when he came to us. He will have no memory as he grows up of the time that he spent with us, and this filled the gap for him. He’ll be able to look back on the pictures and just see that he was cared for, that he was loved during that time.

His story box were things that were specific to him, his favorite hat, his first toy. We did some hand and footprints, went to a ceramic cafe and did some hand and footprints, some photos in there of Christmas, seeing Santa for the first time. So everything that was just special to him went in the box. I decided to do a video myself as well. That speaks volumes, to see videos when you were younger.

All I did was, as time was going on, I just videoed little snippets of when he came, first foods. So that is on a memory tick that can just go into phones as well, so it’s really quite easy. And I’ve put that in the box for him with a little, I put a little heart keyring on there just saying, “Mickey’s special memories.” So yeah, when he’s older. And his family as well. I mean, he’s gone to his family, wonderful family, and for them, it’s filled gaps. They weren’t there for his early months, and they love him and adore him now, but they have that. They can see all that.

So it just brings everything together, I think. Now, I couldn’t imagine growing up as an adult and knowing, first eight months I was somewhere, and I don’t know what happened then. That would be such a gap. It’s eight months, but it would be the biggest gap in your life. So for Mickey, he can look back and know exactly what happened then, and see his journey.

I think it has a major impact on your life as you get older, that those first few months were really special. You were with people that loved you and cared for you and wanted you to be there. I feel proud that we’ve done that for him. It’s huge. It is, and it’s an amazing thing that you do, and other people appreciate it. You see people that… It’s something to be proud of, being a foster carer. My mom got to have a grandchild again.

She was like, she’s loved every minute of it. And I think she did say to me, it’s the best eight months she’s had in a long time, which is glorious. It’s been brilliant, totally worth it. Do it.

Clare's Story

I’m Claire, and I adopted three beautiful children almost four years ago. The life story work begins with the foster carer.

She made these collections of photos, collections of their work from school, everything like that. She brought it together. They have always had these beautiful books with her family in that they consider their family. They still do consider them their family. But they are their books. They get to look at them, and they get to tell me their memories. They’re completely in charge of it. And then we had an amazing social worker who actually visited the house, spent time with the children, I think it was over a course of 10 weeks. So he actually came to see them here while they were placed with me. They absolutely loved it. They adored him. They loved the whole process, and I think they got a real understanding of that it was about them.

It wasn’t just a fun activity that someone was coming to. He was generally interested in how they were with mommy and where they lived before. It was just a beautiful conversation between them. It was never something that they had to shy away from. Yeah, he came and made pizzas with them. And while they were doing it, it was very much their choice. They were in control.

They could put what they wanted on it. And I think a lot of that was related to that they didn’t have control in the past. And I think it was maybe the second or the third visit where he started then having the conversations of, “Oh, and do you know why we’re doing this?

Do you know why the pizza’s important? Do you know that we all can have different things on it? We all come from different backgrounds, but actually, the end result is what we make of it ourselves.” And it was really, really lovely. He was amazing with them.

The life story book that the social worker did, that came after he had visited us. So it had pictures of him with them when they made the pizzas, when they planted seeds, and on one page, it will show how a plant needs to grow, and on the next page, it showed how a child needs to grow, and he really, really made it relatable to them. They’re very tatty at the moment. They’re all ripped apart.

The two girls will have conversations at nighttime when I’m not there, and they will look through their memories. They will bring their younger sibling into it, and talk through it with him. So it’s not always about me facilitating the conversations. They actually can take control themselves. Adoption’s always been in our family.

My oldest brother is adopted, so it’s always been a normal route to becoming a family for us. My perspective is very different to what my brother’s perspective was. He’s 46 years old now, and the advice from when he was born was, “Don’t tell them.” It’s like it was a dirty little secret.

And I can see the difference with my kids, that actually, they’re very confident. They’re very confident in themselves. They’re very happy that they were with a foster carer.

They’re very, very secure. There’s no question mark over where they came from. There’s no question mark over why they are suddenly with mommy, what happened before that. And that’s because it’s an everyday conversation, and the life story work with foster carers and with the social worker just continues with me. It’s a very, very natural process, and especially for the little one. He doesn’t have any memories, so a lot of them, he’s growing up in this normal conversation. It’s never going to be a, “Let’s sit down and I’ve got something to tell you.” At the moment, he knows everything.

He has the knowledge. He doesn’t necessarily understand it, but it’s not going to be a big surprise because of everything that his sisters and that I and his foster carer have done with him in the past.

Our model and approach

Our model provides a structured, compassionate approach that supports emotional wellbeing, strengthens identity and improves long-term outcomes. It is designed to be responsive to each child’s individual needs. 

In practice, this means life story work begins from the earliest point of involvement and continues at key moments throughout a child’s journey. It is led by the practitioner best placed to support the child and shaped by relationships built on trust and understanding.  

The work is creative, interactive and tailored to each child’s age, identity and development. Always guided by curiosity, empathy and acceptance, it keeps their voice and lived experience right at the heart of everything.  

We promote a culture of ‘life story-minded practice’, where capturing meaningful details becomes part of everyday recording, reflection and interaction. This whole-system approach helps ensure important memories and experiences are not lost and can later form the foundation of life story books and later life letters.  

A therapist talking to a teenager

Evidence-informed practice: The Joy Rees model

Our approach is informed by the work of Joy Rees, an experienced social worker and consultant whose model is widely recognised across permanence and adoption practice.

Drawing on child development, attachment and trauma-informed theory, this approach begins by establishing safety and stability in the present before gently exploring past experiences.

It supports children to make sense of what has happened and move forward with a stronger sense of identity and hope for the future.  

A whole-system responsibility

Life story work is not owned by one team or role. It is a collective responsibility shared by everyone who supports a child or young person at any point in their journey.

Social workers, team managers and the wider team around the child all contribute to building a fuller understanding of the child’s experiences.

The more complex a child’s history, the more important it becomes that this work is supported collaboratively across services, with each professional adding their perspective to help shape a meaningful and coherent story. 

A teacher talking to students in a classroom

Life story-minded recording

A key part of our model is ‘life story-minded recording’, an approach that encourages professionals to think about the child’s story whenever they record information. This means capturing not only significant events and decisions, but also the experiences and emotions that sit behind them.

Over time, these details create a richer, more personal narrative that supports direct life story work, life story books and later life letters. Without this conscious approach, important moments and memories can easily be lost. 

A therapist talking to a father and son

The impact

Embedding life story work across practice helps to:

  • strengthen identity and sense of belonging for children
  • support emotional healing and understanding
  • improve the quality of life story books and later life letters
  • ensure future practitioners have a fuller picture of the child’s journey
  • create more reflective, relationship-based practice across services

If this is an area you’re looking to strengthen, expand or introduce within your local authority, the Birmingham Children’s Trust team would be glad to share their learning and support that development. 

How can we help?

If you feel a conversation would be helpful, please contact us, in confidence, via the email address below.

We welcome the opportunity to explore how we can support you.

  • bctsupport@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk
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