Lost in transition

Leaving home is a daunting experience for any teenager. But for a young person in care, the move to independent living can have a devastating impact on their lives.

For some, the first years away from foster or residential care are spent in squalid housing, struggling to access education, training and work.

A survey of 19-year-old care leavers by Catch 22’s National Care Advisory Service (NCAS) shows that one in 10 live in unsuitable accommodation. And care leavers as a group trail their peers significantly in terms of educational attainment. Just six per cent go on to higher education, compared with 40 per cent of the general population. Given that only 13 per cent of looked-after children attain five or more A* to C grade GCSEs, it is little wonder that one in three 19-year-old care leavers is classed as Neet (not in education, employment or training).

According to a report presented this spring to ministers, one of the main barriers to improving care leavers’ lives is the lack of understanding of their vulnerability across government departments.

Cross-departmental efforts
The report, called Access All Areas, was put together by NCAS, the Prince’s Trust, A National Voice and the Care Leavers Foundation.

This report calls for the Cabinet Office to set up a working group that would monitor and oversee cross-departmental efforts to improve services for care leavers. It would aim to ensure the needs of care leavers are taken into account across benefits, health, education and housing policy.

Children’s minister Tim Loughton has sent the report to members of the cross-departmental Youth Action Group and asked for care leaving issues to be placed on the agenda of a future meeting of the group.

Care Leavers Foundation trustee Janet Rich says: “While this does not carry the same weight as a cabinet committee, it is a step in the right direction.”

Loughton concedes that support for care leavers “is still far too patchy and inconsistent across the country”. He says: “As the corporate parents of these young people, we must and can do better.” He has also promised that ?their issues will “feature strongly” in the forthcoming children-in-care strategy planned for this summer.

But Rich fears the government’s localism agenda – whereby councils, universities and colleges are given discretion over the support they offer – will continue to create a varied picture of services for care leavers.

This inconsistency is already an issue in accessing higher education, according to a report from The Who Cares? Trust, Open Doors, Open Minds. It states that although the government has made money available to care leavers wanting to study at university through its National Scholarship Fund, promotion of this by universities varies with each institution.

Policy and research officer Jack Smith says: “How care leavers are supported is being largely left up to universities. As a result, some are good, while others are not.”

Councils are required to offer a £2,000 annual bursary to care leavers wanting to attend university, plus a £3,250 government maintenance grant.

Poor financial support
The importance of such financial support cannot be underestimated, says Tyler, a 23-year-old care leaver from Brighton. He says: “One of the greatest burdens that anyone can have is feeling overstretched financially.” But Brighton & Hove City Council director of people Terry Parkin fears the financial support on offer may still not be enough to help care leavers cope with the hike in tuition fees. Instead, he is calling for fees to be completely waived for care leavers. “The leaving care population is very small, so we are not talking a lot of money here,” says Parkin.

The coalition’s focus on localism has also affected care leavers’ access to further education, says Linda Briheim-Crookall, senior policy manager at NCAS.

When the government scrapped the education maintenance allowance, care leavers were guaranteed £1,200 support for further education through the replacement 16 to 19 bursary, handed out by colleges. But NCAS has found large discrepancies in access. “There is confusion about who is eligible; some colleges are not promoting it,” says Briheim-Crookall. “We are getting some reports of young people joining a college later in the academic year and being told that the money has run out.”

Councils are also given too much discretion over housing care leavers, says Rich. “It’s a no-brainer to say that if someone has a stable home life, then the other parts of their life are likely to be more stable,” she says. Grants for setting up home are among a range of local authority services to care leavers that vary markedly. A CYP Now investigation last autumn revealed that some councils are offering as little as £750 to furnish a home. The Care Leavers Foundation recommends that a minimum of £2,500 should be handed out. Rich says: “Guidance to councils is just too woolly at times. It says they must provide ‘suitable’ accommodation for care leavers. In some areas ‘suitable’ means it has four walls and may or may not have damp.”

The Access All Areas report calls on the Department for Communities and Local Government to take a stronger lead and direct councils to give priority status to care leavers and ensure social housing providers limit the use of evictions when rent is in arrears.

Such an approach has helped Bradford Metropolitan District Council become one of just 13 councils to receive NCAS’s quality mark for leaving care services. The council has also earmarked several apprenticeship places for care leavers, while the dedicated leaving care team Leap (Learning, Employment, Advice and Preparation) has developed links with local businesses to secure care leavers jobs. In addition, NCAS recognised the commitment from senior councillors in Bradford to supporting care leavers.

Bradford’s executive member for children’s services, Ralph Berry, says: “With the right support, care leavers can be high achievers. We take our corporate parent responsibilities very seriously.” One of those supported by the team is 20-year-old Jamie-Leigh Monahan, who took up an apprenticeship post with a children’s centre. She says: “I always thought that when you get to 18, then that was it, all help stopped. But I’m 20 now and I’m still getting help.”

But Berry concedes that even with a strong council commitment to supporting care leavers, life is difficult when young people leave care, as they continue to be placed on “unsuitable housing estates”.

Whether it is differing interpretations of suitable housing or patchy promotion of education opportunities, Rich says there are still too many “elephant traps” facing care leavers. She adds: “No politician wants care leavers to live in poor-quality housing or have problems accessing benefits and education, but too often supporting young people leaving care is not seen as a priority.”