Photos by: Jazamin Sinclair

Hull, November 2026 – Care-experienced young people will present a free digital resource designed by them at the University of Hull on Thursday, 19 November. 

Care leavers created SIX STEPS as co-researchers on The Verbatim Formula (TVF), a long-running research project led by Queen Mary University of London and The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, in collaboration with People’s Palace Projects. It is free to use. It is aimed at young people in or leaving care, and at the social workers, foster carers, teachers and others who support them. 

The SIX STEPS offers a range of creative, accessible and fun activities that guide young people to explore their identity, needs and interests, build confidence, develop skills to advocate for themselves and others, recognise their strengths and creativity and experiment with artistic practices.  

The Hull event follows a presentation of the toolkit in Liverpool, where forty-five people attended, including social workers and care-experienced people. They found the theatre verbatim activities “an inspiring way to deliver the model.”

“The Six Steps resource is a great access point for participation teams to get to know their young people.” Liverpool social worker 

In 2025, Hull City Council said more than 700 children were in its care system. 

TVF has been working with care-experienced young people since 2015. It uses verbatim theatre techniques to record what young people say about their lives, from the hardest moments to the most loving and rewarding ones and shares that testimony anonymously with the professionals responsible for their care and education and policy makers. Hearing young people in their own words gives those professionals the understanding they need to change practice and policy. 

At the Hull event, care-experienced young people will present SIX STEPS themselves and share new creative work. 

“We work with art research organisations that can create community-led, safeguarded spaces, where we can advocate and teach people these tools of creativity and how to care for yourself as well as caring for one another.” (co-researcher and care-experience youth) 

Event details
Creativity and Care Experience: Resources and Opportunities
Thursday 19 November 2026, 11 am
Larkin Drama Studio, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX
Book via Eventbrite [Free]: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creativity-and-care-experience-resources-and-opportunities-tickets-2002422448447