This year we have offered 143 roles to people from the care experienced community through our employment initiative, a six-fold increase on last year.

Our Building Happier Futures programme, which supports care experienced people into work and education, has also raised £2.2m since its launch in 2022, celebrated today at the launch of the second annual impact report.

The Building Happier Futures programme aims to offer employability support to care experienced people, including work experience, CV writing and interview skills to ultimately create job opportunities.

Ahead of Care Leavers Week, the report launched highlights milestones achieved since the programme’s inception in 2022, including:

• Over 600 Partners (employees of the John Lewis Partnership) completed care experience learning with Who Cares? Scotland, deepening their understanding to become proactive allies.

• 550 care experienced people have engaged in the Building Happier Futures employability programme

• We were named The Fostering Network’s 2023 Employer of the Year, as well as becoming a Silver Standard Kinship Friendly Employer with national charity, Kinship.

• Partnering again with the Open University, we jointly fund 8 student scholarships for young, care experienced people in 2024; taking our total to 12 scholarships since 2023.

• The Building Happier Futures programme moved to sit as a Fund, as part of the John Lewis Partnership Foundation. The change allows that, alongside supporting our existing charity partners, we can now award grants to UK projects that provide education, connection, experience and fun for care experienced people.

“I’m very proud to introduce the second Building Happier Futures annual report. In the last year, we’ve continued to collaborate and learn from experts in the community to make sure our work is credible and sustainable.

I’m particularly proud that we’ve extended our work to offer dedicated Apprenticeships for care experienced people, and opportunities for connections and learning life skills with our Cookery School offer.

We continue to work with local authorities, charities and trusts to create employment opportunities for young people and remain passionate about being the employer of choice for individuals with care experience.”

Ceira Thom, Head of Learning, Inclusion and Belonging

“As I reflect on the progress that is being made and the impact that the Building Happier Futures programme has had two years in, it reinforces my belief in our Partnership as a truly different kind of business, which places our purpose; to work in partnership for a happier world, at its heart.

A genuine thank you to all those involved in realising our 2024 impacts; we’re only two years in but we’re building momentum and are excited to see where we’ll all be a further 12 months from now.”

Jo Rackham, Interim Executive Director, People, at the John Lewis Partnership

“We’re determined to deliver the best life chances for all children and make sure they have the support they need to thrive.

We know that for many young people, leaving care can be intimidating and overwhelming, which is why it’s fantastic to see the work that the John Lewis Partnership is doing to support care experienced young people with opportunities to build their skills and fulfil their potential.

We will continue to make the transition out of care as a smooth as possible by helping care leavers to access accommodation, jobs and practical and emotional help.”

Janet Daby, Minister for Children & Families

Thoughts from our charity partners

“Action for Children’s vision is that every child and young person has a safe and happy childhood, and the foundations they need to thrive. Our work with the John Lewis Partnership is helping more care experienced children and young people to have the stability they need and deserve.

We are so proud to be in partnership on the Building Happier Futures programme to inspire more support for young people with care experience now and in the future.”

Paul Carberry, Chief Executive at Action for Children

“The Building Happier Futures programme has had a significant impact since it launched, and has continued to grow from strength to strength over the last year. The funds raised have enabled us to offer more moments of happiness to our members than ever before – including our Care Family Christmas, Carelidh and Summer Camp.

The benefits of bringing Care Experienced people together in connection and belonging cannot be overstated. However, the impact of the programme goes much deeper with John Lewis Partnership investing in Care Aware training for partners to ensure that their workplace is somewhere that Care Experienced people can thrive.

Alongside this, it has been a privilege to sit on the Building Happier Future’s Advisory Board, to come together to influence the future of Care Experienced people all over the UK. The partnership has achieved amazing things so far, and I am excited to see how much we can achieve together going forward.”

Louise Hunter, CEO, Who Cares? Scotland

“Building Happier Futures continues to have a huge impact for the fostering community across the UK. As a Fostering Friendly employer, the John Lewis Partnership is providing vital support to partners who foster and those going through the approval process.

We need to recruit and retain foster carers now more than ever and JLP have helped spread this urgent call to new audiences. With the majority of care experienced children in the UK living in fostering families, the impact of initiatives like this cannot be underestimated.

The John Lewis Partnership is leading the way as a socially responsible employer and others should follow in their footsteps.”

Sarah Thomas, Chief Executive of The Fostering Network