Preparation for Leaving Care
Scope of this chapter
Arrangements for young people Leaving Care are the responsibility of the Placing Authority; therefore managers and staff should obtain copies of procedures from relevant authorities and assist social workers in implementing them.
This chapter summarises the key terms and responsibilities in relation to Leaving Care and what steps should be taken by homes in relation to them.
Relevant Regulations
| ENGLAND | WALES |
|---|---|
|
The Care Planning Standard The Children’s Views, Wishes and Feelings Standard Regulation 5 – Engaging with the Wider System to Ensure Each Child’s Needs are Met |
The Social Services and Wellbeing Act (Wales) 2014 The Regulated Services (Service Providers and Responsible Individuals) Regulations 2017 |
Related guidance
- The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations - Volume 3: Planning Transition to Adulthood for Care Leavers
- The Care Leaver's Charter
- DfE, Applying corporate parenting principles to looked-after children and care leavers (2017)
- Extending Personal Adviser Support to All Care Leavers to Age 25: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities (February 2018)
- Local Offer Guidance: Guidance for Local Authorities
- Department of Education: Young Peoples Entitlements
- Charter for Care Leavers
When a Child in our care reaches their 16th birthday we need to start (where we have not already done so) considering all of the inputs that we can contribute to ensure that we are helping them plan a smooth path for a successful transition into adulthood.
The responsible authority will appoint a Personal Adviser (this will usually be at the first review after the young person turns 16), the Personal Adviser will ideally be an individual known to the young person - their connexions worker, their own social worker or it may be an individual unknown to the young person such as an appointed member of the leaving care team from the responsible authority (the young person should be entitled to make recommendations as to whom they would prefer to be their Personal Adviser. The young person should be made aware as to how to make a complaint regarding the appointment of their Personal Adviser).
Where the child reaches the age of 16 and at subsequent care planning reviews a Personal Adviser has not been appointed and/or introduced to the young person, the Keyworker should approach the Responsible Authority to raise the concern as to the absence of the Personal Adviser.
Whether you are the child’s keyworker or not, all staff have a duty to promote the opportunities available to the young people in their care and to all Care Leavers. We should all take a keen interest in individual Preparation for Leaving Care Plan’s and we should help each individual Young Person to understand the detail of their plan including the financial support available and why the different stages and achievements are valuable and necessary. Young people should be encouraged to remain in education where possible or take up training opportunities and activities to improve their chance of employability.
We need to ensure that we are investing in the young people that are currently in our care, it is often useful to ask oneself- if this was my child/sibling what would I be doing to help them prepare for the big wide world? What would I want someone else to be doing now to help my child/sibling if I could not be with them to guide and support them.
Normally the definitions of the following terms are found in Keywords Appendix, but a number relate primarily to this chapter; therefore they have also been summarised below.
Other Keywords, which are not specific to this procedure are defined in Keywords Appendix.
They are aged 16 or 17, have been Looked After for a period or periods totalling at least 13 weeks starting after their 14th birthday and are still Looked After. (This total does not include a series of short term placements of up to four weeks where the child has returned to the parent). There is a duty to support these young people up to the age of 18.
For homes in Wales, if they are 16 or 17, are being Looked After by a Local Authority and have been looked after by a Local Authority, or a Local Authority in England for a specified period, or periods amounting in all to a specified period, which began after the child reached a specified age and ended after the child reached the age of 16.
They are aged 16 or 17 and are no longer Looked After, having previously been in the category of Eligible Young Person when Looked After. However, if after leaving the looked after service, a young person returns home for a period of 6 months or more to be cared for by a parent, he or she will no longer be a "relevant young person". A young person is also "relevant" if, having been looked after for three months or more, he or she is then detained after their 16th birthday either in hospital, remand centre, young offenders' institution or secure training centre. There is a duty to support relevant young people up to the age of 18.
They are aged 18 to 21 (or up to 24 if in full-time further or higher education), and have left the Looked After service having been previously either "eligible", "relevant" or both. There is a duty to consider the need to support these young people. Placing Authorities also have a duty to pay a higher education bursary.
They are over the age of 16 and under the age of 21, and have been Looked After or, if disabled, Privately Fostered after reaching 16, but do not qualify as eligible, relevant or former relevant. They may receive support, advice and assistance.
A Personal Adviser is the person appointed to work in relation to the Relevant child or Former Relevant child, usually at the first Looked After Review after the young person's 16th birthday, and will occupy a key role in preparing the young person for independence and providing support after they cease to be looked after. He or she will hold a pivotal role in the assessment, planning and review of services as set out in the Pathway Plan.
Where accommodation is provided to a young person by the responsible authority under section 23B or section 24B of the Children Act 1989, the Personal Adviser must visit the Relevant child or Former Relevant child at that accommodation:
- Within 7 days of the accommodation first being provided;
- Subsequently, before the Pathway Plan is reviewed; and
- At subsequent intervals of not more than two months.
They should be kept up-to-date with the young person’s progress and wellbeing.
All Young People - Eligible, Relevant or Former Relevant - must receive a multi-agency assessment of their needs covering the advice, assistance and support they will need when leaving care.
The young person's social worker will be responsible for coordinating the Needs Assessment.
This assessment should be completed no more than 3 months after the young person's 16th birthday or after the young person becomes Eligible or Relevant if this is later. The young person's Care Plan together with information from other recent assessments will form the basis of the Needs Assessment.
The young person's social worker will be responsible for recording the assessment information and conclusions as well as the outcome of any meetings held. The young person must be invited to any meetings held in connection with the assessment.
The Needs Assessment should take account of the views of the following:
- The young person;
- The parents;
- The current carer, such as residential staff;
- The school/college and the education service;
- Any Independent Visitor;
- Any person providing health care or treatment for the young person;
- The Personal Adviser;
- Any other relevant person including, in the case of a young person with special needs, a representative from Adult Services.
All young people will have a Pathway Plan in place within 3 months of becoming Eligible and, wherever possible, a Pathway Plan will be in place by the young person's 16th birthday.
The Pathway Plan will include a young person's Personal Education Plan. Each young person will be central to drawing up their own Pathway Plan setting the goals and identifying how the local authority will help meet them, including any services being provided in respect of the young person's disability or needs arising from being in custody or as a result of entering the country as an unaccompanied asylum seeker. It should be written in a way that meets the needs of the young person, capturing their aspirations and key messages. Young people with particular language or communication needs should be provided throughout the process with appropriate interpretation, translation or advocacy support.
The Pathway Plan must clearly identify the roles of each person and agency with a part to play in supporting the care leaver including the Home - which will have a crucial role as the immediate carers of the young person.
Moving to Independent Living: where a young person is moving into independent living, the relevant housing authority, (either where the responsible authority is or another authority where the young person is planning to move to), should be involved jointly with the young person’s social worker in order to provide advice. However, identifying the appropriate accommodation for the young person will remain the responsibility of the Children’s Social Care department.
It should not be the practice that care leavers are treated as homeless when care placements come to an end in order to place the housing authority under an obligation to secure accommodation under the Housing Act 1996 Act.
Working Together to Safeguard Children highlights the vulnerability of young people who are homeless, or who are threatened with homelessness and emphasises the duty of public authorities to prevent this.
A joint protocol should be agreed between the housing authority and Children’s Social Care to cover arrangements for achieving planned, supportive transitions to independent living; identifying homelessness risk early and acting to prevent it, and providing a quick, safe, joined up response for care leavers who do become homeless (see also below).
Corporate Parenting Principles for care leavers were formally set out by the Children and Social Work Act 2017. The Act established that the transition for young people should include and involve not only the local authority providing Children's Social Care services, but also District Councils (where appropriate) and partner agencies. The Principles are:
- To act in the best interests, and promote the physical and mental health and well-being, of those children and young people;
- To encourage those children and young people to express their views, wishes and feelings;
- To take into account the views, wishes and feelings of those children and young people;
- To help those children and young people gain access to, and make the best use of, services provided by the local authority and its relevant partners;
- To promote high aspirations, and seek to secure the best outcomes, for those children and young people;
- For those children and young people to be safe, and for stability in their home lives, relationships and education or work; and
- To prepare those children and young people for adulthood and independent living.
All local authorities must publish up-to-date information about the services it offers for care leavers and other services that may assist care leavers in, or preparing for, adulthood and independent living. Particularly: health and well-being; relationships; education and training; employment; accommodation; participation in society. This information should also include relevant services that can be accessed by its partner agencies.
Staff in the Home must assist in the pathway planning process, and help the young person prepare for transition by developing the self help skills needed for independent living.
Children should be supported to develop their independence according to their individual needs, while protecting themselves from being in unsafe situations or with unsafe people.
As the Home will have a sound day to day understanding of young people's capabilities and needs, staff will be key partners to the pathway planning process. They should actively seek to make the fullest contribution, identifying and working with other partners and professionals who are part of the 'corporate parent' partnership and with other relevant persons.
It is possible that there will be young people living in the Home who are not from the local authority in which the Home is located, i.e. they have been placed 'out of area', or in a Placement at a Distance. It will be important for these young peoples to think about, and discuss, where they wish to transition to in terms of location, that is, either to move out of the Home but continue to live in the area of the Home, or, to return back to their home local authority, or some other option.
The young person will be entitled to the same support wherever they live as a 'care leaver'. These discussions should be undertaken with the young person's social worker, and the Home staff should work with the young person and the social worker to ensure a smooth and safe transition that supports the young person's Plan.
The decision as to where the young person will transition to will be discussed and agreed at the young person's Looked After Review.
Staff should make sure they are aware of the 'Local Offer' in whichever the area the young person is moving to and promote the take up of services and resources.
Staff must help each child to prepare for any moves from the Home, whether they are returning home, moving to another placement or adult care, or to live independently. This includes supporting the child to develop emotional and mental resilience to cope without the Home's support and, where the child is moving to live independently, practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care.
Practical examples of how the Home can help young people prepare for the transition to adulthood include:
- Using pocket money, leisure and clothing allowances to help children develop money management and finance skills;
- Supporting young people to set up a 'bottom drawer' of items that can be saved and used when the young person sets up their home;
- Food preparation and meal planning;
- Discussing with the young person any careers advice and further education and training that has been offered and what they need to do to progress this.
Or, where required, supporting the young person where there is a disparity between their aspirations any advice they have received - perhaps helping them to consider alternatives and supporting them to explore the steps they need to take to pursue them where appropriate.
As the young person moves into independence, the transition process will be a stressful and a difficult time for them. Even with good support, the young person is likely to benefit from someone who knows them well and/or they trust. This may well be their key worker or other member of staff at the Home.
The Home should seek to offer the possibility of 'outreach' type support (similar to a 'Staying Close' scheme) to both directly assist the young person and to help them develop positive relationships with the new professionals who will take role in their lives. As with all plans and arrangements, these will be reviewed.
Where the young person has chosen to live away from their home area, this out-reach support may well be a key aspect of support for the young person, especially during the first period of independence.
In such circumstances, the Home should be aware of and promote their local authority's Local Offer (see Section 2.9, Local Offer) and also of the relevant types of accommodation available to care leavers and the joint local protocols developed by the Children’s Social Care and Housing Authority to support care leavers.
See: Joint Housing Protocols for Care Leavers: good practice advice (DfE and MHCLG).
If a young person is concerned that the accommodation being offered to them by the local authority is not suitable, staff in the Home should support them to make an appeal.
The Home will challenge the responsible placing authority when staff have concerns about the future plans for the child, including the timing of leaving care.
Young people who have left the Home may want to stay in touch with key trusted adults.
Residential staff can do this in a range of ways such as welcoming young people when they come back to visit the Home or seeing them in their new home or community. Sometimes this is undertaken on a formal basis, such as time limited outreach support, and at other times more informally.
This contact needs to be undertaken safely and so should be agreed and recorded by the line manager of the staff concerned, and, depending on the age of the young person concerned:
- Agreed with the social worker and/or leaving care worker;
- Set out in the young person's Placement Plan/ Pathway Plan.
Legislation, Statutory Guidance and Government Non-Statutory Guidance
DfE, Applying corporate parenting principles to looked-after children and care leavers (2017)
Local Offer Guidance: Guidance for Local Authorities
Joint Housing Protocols for Care Leavers: good practice advice (DfE and MHCLG)
Children's Homes That Provide Care and Accommodation for Adults (Ofsted)
Last Updated: July 9, 2024
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