Exploring young residential care leavers’ participation in care leaving decisions in Ghana: An interpretive analysis using Hart’s ladder of participation

Each year, a significant number of children transition out of residential care in Ghana into family-based or other viable settings. This transition is often challenging, as care leavers encounter considerable economic, relational, educational, and employment difficulties that affect their well-being and post-care outcomes. In Ghana, inadequate preparation for leaving care, limited aftercare support, and weak welfare systems exacerbate these vulnerabilities compared to care leavers in other countries. Meaningful participation in care leaving planning has been shown globally to strengthen self-efficacy, self-esteem, and young people’s sense of agency and improve their wellbeing outside of care. However, little is known about how care leavers in Ghana experience participation in such decisions. This qualitative study explores the involvement of young residential care leavers in decisions about their departure from care, using semi-structured interviews with ten participants and Hart’s Ladder of Participation as an analytic lens. The findings indicate that despite Ghana’s commitments under the UNCRC and related national policies, care leavers’ participatory rights are often neglected in practice. Participants described feeling excluded from key decisions, with their views frequently overlooked or manipulated, positioning them at the lowest levels of the participation ladder. This study highlights the gap between policy and practice and emphasizes the need for more inclusive approaches that recognise care leavers as active partners in planning and decisions around their transition out of care.