CYP Now - Checks on care leaver duties needed to prevent lottery of support, NCAS says

Care leavers continue to face a lottery in terms of education, accommodation and care planning support, because of a lack of robust checks on local authority performance, the National Care Advisory Service (NCAS) has warned.

Streamlined guidance for professionals working with care leavers came into force in April last year.

Since then, NCAS believes care leavers have experienced some improvements, particularly around the delivery of the higher education bursary and the extension of income support and housing benefit to care leavers aged 21 or younger who are returning to study GCSEs or A-levels.

But NCAS has warned that without a mechanism to monitor local authorities’ performance towards care leavers across a wider set of duties, the national picture remains varied.

Linda Briheim-Crookall, senior policy manager for NCAS, said: “We are concerned that there is a mixed picture in terms of the implementation of the guidance nationally.

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