Action for Children believes that care leavers deserve greater respect and support than has been given to them in the past. To achieve this, agencies must work together, focusing on improving a range of outcomes, including emotional wellbeing.
Agencies need to eliminate the unnecessary obstacles that these vulnerable young people face. Care leavers continue to be a marginalised group, remaining among the most disadvantaged people in the UK in terms of: educational attainment; health and wellbeing; employment and economic stability; and life chances.
- 50 per cent of 16 to 25-year-old care leavers are unemployed
- 54 per cent of care leavers have no educational qualifications
- Less than one per cent of care leavers go to university
Consistent care
Children and young people need stable, consistent care to enable them to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens.
Action for Children believes the government should explore the extension of corporate parenting responsibilities until a care leaver reaches the age of 25, as care leavers face many barriers in accessing services. These young people lead extremely chaotic lifestyles as a result of many factors, including the issues that meant they needed to go into care in the first place and the instability of their upbringing. Between 25 and 50 per cent of young people leaving care eventually end up in custody as adults. In fact, a care leaver is more likely to end up in prison than at university. Statistics show they are a group of young people who may end up with multiple and persistent problems, at great cost to society. Stable, consistent support up until the age of 25 will help counteract many of these early difficulties, and will narrow the gap between care leavers and non-care leavers.
Post-placement support
More emphasis must be put on post-placement support, and on assisting parents and young people to re-engage.
Research shows that young people who return home after being in care have some of the worst education outcomes, because nothing has been done to change the situation they are returning to. We want services to continue supporting care leavers who return home, and to work closely with the young people and their parents.
Accommodation
We want every care leaver to have suitable accommodation, and an end to the use of bed and breakfast accommodation.
One of the greatest issues for young people leaving care is finding appropriate accommodation. We must move away from the current situation where care leavers’ access to housing is a ‘postcode lottery’.
We want to see an end to using bed and breakfast accommodation to house care leavers – we want suitable housing to be found for them at whatever age they choose to leave the care system.
While moves to end homelessness (and the use of bed and breakfast accommodation) for 16 and 17-year-olds are very welcome, we would like to see this guarantee include all care leavers because, in our experience, care leavers frequently struggle to access suitable accommodation.
More chances
Support must reflect the fact that the artificial nature of leaving care rarely reflects young people’s readiness for independence; in the way that leaving home does for their peers. Action for Children believes we need to support those young people who move in and out of services.
There should be minimum standards for care leavers’ accommodation, based upon best practice where care leaving teams continue to support the young person during this transition period into adulthood.
Young adults leaving care need more chances to succeed, and to make the most of their lives. Action for Children Scotland believes it is vital that the Scottish Government’s More Chances, More Choices strategy to improve opportunities in training, education and in employment for young people secures better outcomes for care leavers.
