"I walked in the door and I couldn't believe it. It stank and there was woodchip wallpaper all over the walls. It was in a terrible state." Moving can be stressful at any time, but for care leaver Tomas Foley it was especially daunting.
Enrolled in university, Foley didn't have any choice regarding his local authority-provided accommodation. Furthermore, he had no budget or skills to furnish or redecorate it.
Foley, now southern development worker at care leavers charity A National Voice, says accommodation is one of the biggest problems for children leaving care. "In many housing departments care leavers are at the bottom of the pile. A single 18-year-old man is just not seen as vulnerable," he says.
The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000, in force in England and Wales since October 2001, means local authorities have a duty to support care leavers and to ensure they provide "appropriate services" for them until the age of 21.
This means that they must keep in touch via a personal adviser and a pathway plan, setting out the services care leavers need. Those attending university are entitled to individually assessed financial support and assistance with finding vacation accommodation.
Care professionals and researchers agree, however, that the reality varies.
Thomas Coram research officer Mags Quigley is tracking three successive groups of care leavers at university (Social Care News, 4-17 August) and says that young people who know their rights are more likely to get a better deal.
"Some local authorities will pay all of a student's accommodation costs, give money each week to go towards bills and food, and reimburse money spent on books and supplies. But at the other end of the spectrum there's the London authority that has withdrawn all their support because they say they have no money in their budget," she says.
The consequences of a lack of support can be devastating. "Financial pressures do lead to people dropping out," says Quigley. "There's also the issue of emotional and personal support. We're finding that a lot of children still don't have named personal advisers. One person wasn't even told that their social worker had left the council."
Care Leavers Association secretary Jim Goddard adds that the problem of finding vacation accommodation is a particular bugbear.
Evidence also suggests that youngsters get caught in a financial trap, which means they cannot access education or training without losing their benefits.
"Young people in care often access education later and through a different route, but that simply isn't accounted for," says Foley. He suggests that all care leavers be given access to peer mentoring to help combat the loneliness and depression that many suffer from.
Ruth Stark, professional officer for the British Association of Social Workers in Scotland, agrees that there is a definite mismatch between provision and the needs of young people.
"Young people really don't settle - it's almost as if we're expecting a 16- or an 18-year-old to do what a 26-year-old would do. We need to think about group living.
A lot of young people don't like living on their own but they're rushed into solo tenancies and given inadequate support."
And Who Cares? Trust development director Jenny Robson thinks the Leaving Care Act somewhat misses the point. "It focuses on independence, education and employment, but young people are not really ready," she says. "The care system needs to improve how it prepares young people for adulthood."
Robson adds that learning disabled and physically disabled children continue to "fall through the gaps".
However, it's not all doom and gloom. Research has shown that the Act has had some success in helping young people access further education, training or employment. A young people's green paper to be published in the autumn will also tackle the issue.
And now, a new national protocol for care leavers who move between authorities has been agreed between the Association of Directors of Social Services and the DfES. But even it calls for just a "basic minimum" of support for young people, when all the evidence suggests they need much, much more.
KEY POINTS
- Since the Children (Leaving Care) Act came into force the DfES says the trend for "prematurely" discharging 16-year-olds from care has been reversed
- A new national protocol intends to make sure the Act is followed when children move between authorities.
