CYP Now - National Care Leavers Week: Increase support for children leaving care, campaigners urge

Care charity Become is urging the government to "end the care cliff" and provide ongoing support and smoother transition for children leaving the care system.

Care charity Become is calling for a care system which provides a smoother transition into adulthood for care-leavers. Picture: Monkey Business/Adobe Stock

The so-called care cliff refers to the end of support for young people who leave the care system and are expected to live independently.

The current system involves significant drops in support at ages 16, 18 and 21, which Become refers to as "cliff-edges".

Become’s Sky’s the Limit report, which outlines ideas for a new care system designed by care-experienced young people, states: “A new system shouldn’t feature abrupt changes based on age, and instead recognise that consistency in important relationships and places is vital to having a positive start to adulthood.”

Katharine Sacks-Jones, chief executive of Become, said: “The experiences of young people leaving care are, at times, at risk of being overlooked – but listening to their voices and recognising and addressing the challenges they face is crucial to ensuring a positive start to adulthood. This is increasingly important as the number of young people in and leaving care continues to rise.

“This National Care Leavers’ Week, we continue to call on the government to #EndTheCareCliff so that no young person has to leave care before they’re ready and to ensure that all young care leavers are provided with the support they need to fulfil their hopes and aspirations.”

We are looking forward to National Care Leavers' Week 💜

This #NCLW22, we call on the Government to finally #EndTheCareCliff.

We will be sharing the experiences of young care leavers, amplifying their voices, and asking them what needs to change to make the system better. pic.twitter.com/EtEpqJqMYN
— Become (@Become1992) October 21, 2022

National Care Leavers Week is a week dedicated to celebrating the achievements of those with care experience, the life and identity of care leavers and to campaign for improved support for care leavers.

Organisations have shared support for the cause on twitter using the hashtag #NCLW2022

It's Care Experienced Week 2022, a chance to celebrate the Care Experienced community. We'll be spending this week talking about Clan Childlaw's work with care experience young people and the help and support that we can offer. #CEW22 #NCLW2022 pic.twitter.com/dCpjiIAWQg
— Clan Childlaw (@clanchildlaw) October 24, 2022

The Care Leaders used social media to share personal stories and advice from lived-experience leaders throughout the week.

Welcome to National Care Leavers Week 2022! 🙌

We will be celebrating Lived Experience Leaders all week, we will share personal stories, inspiring anecdotes, advise and resources for care leavers ❤️

Please follow, like and share to spread our messages far and wide 🗣#NCLW22 pic.twitter.com/NU1KPGsuu7
— The Care Leaders (@TheCareLeaders) October 25, 2022

Barnardo’s used the week to highlight recommendations from care-experienced young people on the expected care system reforms, following the Care Review.

"It might be called the care system, but it doesn’t seem that they always care.”

While we await the plan for reform following the #CareReview, we must listen to care-experienced young people. #NCLW22

Here are eight recommendations for change that they want to see 👇. pic.twitter.com/8AVelDnJSX
— Barnardo’s (@barnardos) October 25, 2022

The children's commissioner for England marked National Care Leavers week with the publication of the Vision for Care Leavers report, which sets out a number of recommendations to support care leavers across seven key areas: a better world, children’s social care, community, family, health, jobs and skills and schools.

The report also pledges that the children's commissioner will be launching a care experienced advisory board, to harness the voices of care-experienced young people in the commissioner's future work.

Meanwhile, an online conference, organised by Terry Galloway, founder of the Care Leaver Offer, will give care-experienced campaigners, councillors, council leaders and children and young people portfolio holders the opportunity to learn more about making care experience a protected characteristic.

Speakers will include Galloway, Emma Williamson, deputy leader and portfolio holder for children and young people at Cumberland Shadow Council, which was the first to pass a motion recognising the characteristic and former Care Review chair Josh MacAlister who recommended care experience be made a protected characteristic in law in his final report.