Improving the Life Chances of Care Leavers

Article written by Nisha Rikhi, BA in Politics and International Relations from University of Sussex, GDL graduate, and current LPC student.

It is clear that we as a nation need to be doing more to improve the life chances of care leavers. Care leavers are some of the most vulnerable people in society as they have often come from broken homes and have grown up in the care system, meaning that when they leave care, they have no family support or trusted adults who can help them. This article explores ideas and initiatives that could help to improve the life chances of care leavers.

Staying With a Foster Family Past the Age of Eighteen

More young people should be encouraged to stay with foster parents under the Staying Put scheme. This is because young people often form a relationship with foster parents and thrive when in their care. Removing these children from that supportive environment at the age of eighteen is short-sighted and sets young people up to fail. This is because most young adults still require support from their parents while they are at university or first in employment. It is not sensible to expect young people who are leaving care to be able to move into adult life without some support from their long-term foster parents. Furthermore, allowing young people to leave a stable foster home because they have aged out of the foster care system at the age of eighteen also increases their risk of being homeless. Often these young people will age out of the foster care system and not have a paid job or any financial support available, meaning that many will be unable to obtain a tenancy as they would simply not have the income to sustain their rent liability. As a result, some care leavers end up on the streets while some end up in temporary accommodation, but sadly some end up in prison. Not having a fixed abode makes it harder to get paid employment and means that young people sometimes turn to crime because they have no other means of supporting themselves. One would think that it would be sensible to encourage more young people to stay with a supportive foster family past the age of eighteen under the Staying Put scheme. This is because the foster family can provide a stable address and provide a supportive environment as that young care leaver completes further education and obtains paid work. Therefore, young care leavers should, wherever possible, be encouraged to remain with their foster family under the Staying Put scheme past the age of eighteen.

Supported Lodging for Care Leavers

Alternatively, young people could be placed in supported lodging for a period of time once they leave foster care. This is because many of these young people have no family support and may not have learned important life skills that will make it more likely that they could live independently. Given that some of these young care leavers and young people are at risk of homelessness or are homeless, it is vital that they are given adequate support so that they can obtain housing and keep their housing long-term. Putting young people in supported lodging can give them a buffer of support for the first few critical years of living independently. Placing them with a host or host family for a time, these young people will have access to support and will be able to learn essential life skills that they may not have learned previously. These young people would be able to learn how to sustain a tenancy and would be able to look for secure employment which would be harder for them to do if they were facing housing instability. This is particularly important for young offenders who are coming out of prison. We know that a lot of young offenders have been care leavers which suggests that many care leavers face challenges when they leave care, one of which is undoubtedly housing. This means that young offenders could only benefit from being placed in supported lodging. Having stable housing makes those young people less like to offend in the future as they are given stability and a chance to get back on track by looking for employment and developing skills. Therefore, if we are able to support young people at risk of housing instability by putting them in supported lodging for a period of time, we are reducing the risk of homelessness, offending and reoffending amongst young people.

The Standard Element of Universal Credit

Government should make the standard element of Universal Credit more generous for those people under the age of twenty-five. At the moment, a single person under the age of twenty-five receives £292.11 a month as their standard element. This clearly is not enough to live on, given that the cost of essentials and utility bills have all gone up due to inflation and base rate rises in the current climate. Young people in receipt of Universal Credit are therefore being forced to use foodbanks and apply for hardship funds with their local councils because they cannot meet their essential costs with their benefit income. It could therefore be argued that government could lift young people out of poverty by increasing the amount of money they receive from the standard element of Universal Credit. By increasing this amount, young people would be better able to meet their essential living costs which would reduce their dependence on foodbanks and charitable support. This means that young people would be less dependent on state welfare benefits and would be able to support themselves better moving forward.

Further Education

Care leavers should be required to take up further education courses at college or attend university. This is because higher education develops young people’s transferable skills and makes them more employable. Taking further education courses at college or completing a university degree will also increase a young person’s ability to apply for a wider range for jobs. This is because a lot of employers are looking for potential candidates to have university degrees or have taken further education courses. Encouraging care leavers to take up further education opportunities once they leave school will therefore make them more employable in the future. Furthermore, persuading care leavers to pursue higher education will also reduce the chances of them getting into trouble with the law. This is because keeping young people engaged with education means that they are taking a proactive approach to improving their employment chances. Hence encouraging care leavers to continue their education after they leave school will improve their life changes immeasurably.

Community Sentences for Care Leavers

We need to make more use of community sentences for care leavers who commit non-violent crimes. For young care leavers who commit non-violent crimes, the focus should be on rehabilitation not punishment. The justice system should recognise that children who have aged out of the care system have had a tough start to life and have often come from broken homes and had turbulent care experiences. For young care leavers who have not committed the most serious offences, we should look to use community sentences to keep them out of prison. It is well-known that prison is a hotbed for gangs, violence and drugs, making prison an unsuitable environment for rehabilitation. We also know that often a person goes into prison for a lesser crime and goes on to commit a more serious offence when they leave prison. If we want to stop non-violent care leavers from committing more serious offences and make them productive members of the community, then we need to be making more use of rehabilitative sentences. For example, sentencing a care leaver to a community order with requirements to undertake education courses, unpaid work and substance misuse counselling is an example of a rehabilitative sentence. These are sentences designed to reduce the likelihood of the offender reoffending as they are required to do things or take part in things that will make them more employable, enhance their skills and encourage pro-social behaviours. These are factors which are very important to reducing the rate of recidivism as offenders who have a stake in the community and are supported to rebuild their lives, are less likely to reoffend. Therefore, we should be making more use of community sentences for care leavers who commit a non-violent crime as it makes it more likely that they will be rehabilitated and less likely that they will reoffend in the future.

It is clear that there are several ideas that could be implemented to try and improve the life chances of care leavers. These ideas focus on areas where we commonly see poor outcomes for care leavers, including housing, sentencing for non-violent crimes and education. This article has explored measures that could be taken to better support care leavers and thereby improve their life chances. Given what we know about the number of care leavers who end up in prison and the precarious nature of housing for care leavers, it is undeniable that more needs to be done to support care leavers.