This includes targets to help care leavers to find work, education or training (EET) as well as exemptions from council tax and a role in councils’ "family business".
The plans come in a report published by the Department for Education written by national adviser for care leavers Mark Riddell.
It highlights good quality care leaver provision already being carried out by councils that should be shared England-wide.
This report is based visits by Riddell to care leaver provision at 60 local authorities.
His ambitions for all councils include setting a target of between 70 and 80 per cent for care leavers to be involved in EET.
Some councils have already exempted care leavers from council tax up to the age of 25 to ensure they are not made homeless. Riddell wants all councils to offer this exemption and also ensure all accommodation for those leaving care is “of a high standard that would be good enough for your own child”.
More councils need to treat care leavers as part of their family, he adds, offering ring-fenced apprenticeship opportunities in the “family business”.
Care leavers also need a greater say in local support, through councils employing a care leaver ambassador.
Clear pathways for care leavers, to move between children and adult social and health care, should also be in place.
In addition, councils should work better with universities to ensure they are offered 52-weeks free accommodation a year.
He welcomed progress in recent years to improve care leaver support. This includes the use of the Staying Close programme, which offers continued support from a trusted care home staff member to young people leaving residential care.
Another innovation is the use of more than £5m in care leaver social impact bonds, as ways of funding schemes that help care leavers find work or courses and receive specialist support. Riddell said he has been “overwhelmed by the positivity” among councils taking part in social impact bond schemes.
However, he remains concerned about a number of barriers to robust care leaver support. This includes rising caseloads and increasing complexity of cases. This is driven by the changing nature of care leavers, many of whom are not entering care until there are 15 or being presented as homeless at 16 and 17, he said.
This means care is increasingly focusing in care leavers in their 20s, with councils reporting to Riddell that a much higher proportion of care leavers being supported by a personal advisor are aged between 22 and 25, the report adds.
Riddell also notes the increasingly complex skill set required by personal advisors.
“They are expected to be experts in adult transitions, mental health, commissioning processes, immigration and benefits, whilst developing and maintaining relationship-based practice, which is the primary role of the personal adviser and also what care leavers have said is the most important thing to them,” said Riddell.
Increasing mental health problems, including the impact of isolation and loneliness, among care leavers amid the Covid-19 pandemic has been another challenge facing councils.
He welcomed council action to maintain contact digitally with care leavers as much as possible, through social media video tools in particular. He is particularly impressed with councils providing phones and data packages to care leavers to help them maintain contact.
He wants councils to ensure they continue to “incorporate digital access into care leaver offers”.
Riddell added: “I am hugely ambitious and passionate for our ‘kids’ and optimistic that we can get every local authority in the country to have an offer to their ‘kids’ that is good enough for their own children.”
Education secretary Gavin Williamson said the government was “determined to break down the barriers our most vulnerable children and young people face”.
He added: “We know that the impact of Covid-19 has been particular tough on those leaving care which is why we took urgent action to prevent them being left without support at this time.
"Today we have published a new report that highlights the extraordinary steps taken by councils to support care leavers throughout the pandemic. By sharing best practice we can address the challenges that still remain for young people leaving the care system.”
