A new multi–million pound scheme looks to improve access to better housing, healthcare and employment opportunities for vulnerable young people leaving care.
After his recent announcement regarding funding towards adoption support, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson today announced the new support available, along with a £19 million investment into programmes that directly benefit care leavers.
The new cross-party support will include £10 million funding to create stable homes, £6 million towards support to live independently and £3 million to access further education, alongside 1,000 internships over the next two years to help secure long–term quality jobs.
Internships through the existing Civil Service Internship Scheme, which has already offered 220 jobs to care leavers, will be expanding and will include roles across public sector bodies, including the NHS, police and fire services.
The announcement expands on work already carried out by the Department for Education that attempts to tackle the root cause for children being taken into care. Projects aimed at strengthening families and support for vulnerable children and allow them to remain with their families if it is safe to do so.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said:
“Young people leaving care face enormous barriers in their lives as they move towards independence, from not having a trusted person in their life to rely on, to not having a safe home to return to at the end of the day.
Housing, healthcare and education are three of the biggest obstacles they have to overcome. We all have a responsibility to do better for them – so I’m bringing together colleagues from across government to join me in transforming the support we offer care leavers in all of these key areas to make the biggest difference in their lives.
This starts immediately, because we must raise the bar for these young people, to give them greater stability and a strong sense of purpose in adulthood.”
A new Care Leaver Covenant will meet three times a year to discuss barriers facing young care leavers and how they can be supported.
It will also look at how councils can be supported to employ mental health workers for adolescents leaving care.
Chaired by Mr Williamson and the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Oliver Dowden, the group will ‘agree key goals across relevant policy areas which will be scrutinised by members, which will include the Secretaries of State from the Minister of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Department of Health and Social Care and Home Office.’
Currently, out of the number of people aged 19 to 21 who are ‘not in education, employment or training,’ (NEET) almost 40% of these are care leavers.
The access to funding for further education, as well as the one year paid internships are designed to lead to full time job offers and better overall job prospects.
