Launched in October 2018, the Care Leaver Covenant is a promise made by private, public or voluntary organisations to provide support for care leavers aged 16-25 to help them to live independently. These organisations – they range from councils, charities, large multinationals, NHS, hotel chains, specialist trainers – make offers of help ranging from training and apprenticeships, job opportunities or mentoring and pastoral support. In early 2018, Midlands-based social value agency Spectra First was contracted by the Department for Education to run the covenant. Spectra’s founder and managing director Matthew Gordon said it was his work a few years earlier to establish a supported accommodation service for care leavers that highlighted to him the need for the covenant. “I was disappointed with the quality of supported accommodation provision I found,” says Gordon, whose background is in learning and development. Spectra set about creating a new type of support package for care leavers which meant that when the covenant was launched “we were already doing a lot of it”.
Has progress been what you hoped it to be?
It has possibly exceeded where I wanted it to be.
We have 174 organisations that are signatories to the covenant, 205 offers from organisations – some of which consist of hundreds of opportunities – and a further 275 that have signed up but have yet to make offers.
We have 600 care leavers that have received an opportunity and are using the covenant app and we hope to increase that to 1,000.
However, it was never just about the numbers. Relationships are stronger than we could have hoped for and we have extended our reach.
How do organisations become a signatory?
After an employer expresses an interest, the first step is to sign a statement of intent that shows they want to help.
We work with them to refine what their offer may look like. The key thing is to get buy-in from senior leaders, even if all of the details of the offer may not have been decided. Once an offer is agreed, we share that with the DfE for sign off. Once we have that it is published on the website.
However, every endorsement must be meaningful.
Has it been hard to get organisations on board?
You can always have more signatories. The covenant model is not particularly new – it was based on the Armed Forces Covenant – but people didn’t understand the care experience. We were trying to win hearts and minds by telling care leavers’ stories.
Some local authorities are stronger than others. We have 50 trailblazer authorities across rural and urban areas we’ve been working with to understand the different structures and improve opportunities for young people.
In many places it was seen as just the job of children’s services to work with us. We’ve encouraged a whole-council approach. In Staffordshire, for example, all companies wanting to contract with the council must now sign up to the covenant.
What are your plans for future growth?
Sceptics thought we would be gone within two years, but people are recognising the momentum. We’ve gone from working with six councils to 50 in the past 18 months, which given the challenges is progress that can’t be ignored. Having an excellent local authority lead and advisory board, chaired by former Solace chair Mark Rogers, has been the difference. Former Leeds director of children’s services (DCS) Nigel Richardson is also a trustee and has shared the message with DCSs.
We are funded up to March 2022. Beyond that depends on the Spending Review. We have a 10-year ambition to ensure it stays in everyone’s minds so it would be a shame if it withers away.
We have just announced the launch of the Care Leaver Covenant Business Council to be chaired by television executive Sir Peter Bazalgette that will bring small business leaders together to be covenant ambassadors.
Currently, seven per cent of care leavers go to university and 25 per cent are in prison. We want to reverse those figures.
How do you find care leavers and promote offers?
There are 10,000 young people who leave care each year but are they identified as care leavers by Jobcentre Plus, where the opportunities are advertised? If not, that makes it challenging for us. We also have co-ordinators in prisons.
We want to take the covenant to where young people are so have recently arranged for three progression co-ordinators in colleges to work with student services staff to help them to identify, match and support students into covenant employment and leisure opportunities.
Are you concerned about the impact of the pandemic on opportunities for care leavers?
Massively so. Many of the employers that place offers through the covenant are in sectors badly hit by the pandemic, such as hospitality. I’m reassured by the fact our supporters are still committed to their offers and opportunities. Some have been able to pivot and offer courses online for example.
Digital exclusion affects our young people badly. We need some deep thinking about how the private sector and government can address it – it’s not acceptable how impacted our young people are.
Matthew Gordon CV
- 2014 – present – Managing Director, Spectra First
- 2012 – 2014 – Programme Lead, Catch 22 Dawes Gang Unit
- 2009 – 2013 – Senior Mediator, Mediation Works
- 2008 – 2010 – Governance and Senior Associate, Bloomer Heaven Accountancy & Business Advisors
- 2002 – 2004 – YMCA Project Manager, overseeing development and launch of the first internet drug mentoring service
