Background to the Research

• Concern has been increasing in recent years with regard to the difficulties experienced by 'looked after' young people when they leave care to live independently in the community. This report summarises the findings of three conferences held in late 1999 run by First Key and VOYPIC.
  

Research Approach

• Young people, legislators, policy makers, senior managers, social worker practitioners and professionals from a wide range of agencies alongside individuals and campaigning groups came together in conferences/workshops to highlight the facts and figures concerning young people leaving care, to identify key issues and make recommendations for future policy and practice.
  

Main Findings

Practitioners

Young People

• Many young people are leaving care too early. Whilst, on average, young people in the wider community leave home at 22 years of age, 55% of young people leave care at 16 and 17 years of age.
• Young people experience a lack of co-ordination of services, particularly when they try to secure accommodation, finance and support.

Recommendations

• Every young person should have a guaranteed place in care until a decision to leave care is planned and agreed by the young person, their family and social services.
• All agencies working with young people (such as NIHE, SSA, T&EA) need to establish protocols with social services.
• Each agency should nominate a senior officer to take the lead in raising awareness and understanding about leaving care within the agency.

Education

• Almost half of young people leave care without any educational/vocational qualifications, compared with 8% of the general population.
• Young people face inequalities and discrimination within the education system, underinvestment in the residential childcare sector has resulted, at times, in education not being treated as a priority.

Recommendations

• The education of looked after young people should be fully integrated into the overall care package. The DoE and HSS should work in partnership to create a more integrated service.
• There should be a Charter of Rights for looked after young people, parents and carers. This should include clear procedures and protocols for supporting the education of every young person.

Work

• Young people leaving care should have the same opportunities and choices as their counterparts in the wider society.

Recommendations

• The T&EA, Education, and Social Services should jointly fund initiatives/projects to address the needs of care leavers in securing long-term employment.

Benefits

• Research shows that care leavers have difficulties securing social security benefits and accessing related services to which they are entitled. The benefit system is complex and care leavers may have poor literacy and numeracy skills.

Recommendations

• The SSA and DHSSPS should clarify their respective responsibilities to care leavers in relation to education, training, financial assistance, aftercare support and accommodation.
• Training and Awareness programmes should be offered to Social Security staff and the Agency should produce accessible information for young people.

Housing

• Care leavers often lack the support and financial help of family available to other young people when they try to set up home, many experience considerable movement including periods of homelessness.

Recommendations

• Protocols should be agreed and established between Statutory and Voluntary housing providers and those agencies supporting young people leaving care.

Justice

• There is an interaction between the care and justice system, this is a complex process made up of factors such as the persons emotional state, behaviour, family relations and experience of the child welfare system.

Recommendations

• The idea of creating multidisciplinary Youth Offending Teams that include Statutory, Voluntary and Community sectors should be explored.

Young People

• Young people and their families feel alienated from the review process which is in place in order to monitor, plan and evaluate progress in care.
• The system for delivering care can vary across Trusts and within individual units. Young people feel alienated by rules and regulations that take little account of their individuality or individual circumstances.
• Young people in care are criminalised, minor incidents can elicit the intervention of the police.

Recommendations

• Care plans and the review system should enable more realistic planning and time-scales for those leaving care. Review meetings should be shorter, more participate and young person friendly.
• There should be more house meetings and talking with staff.
• The police should not be called to homes unless an incident is serious.

Foster Care

• There are about 2,500 young people in care in NI, two-thirds are in foster care. Children in foster care achieve more academically, enjoy more positive adult relationships and are less likely to offend than their counterparts in residential care.
• Young people in foster care raised concerns regarding the extent and formality of the systems employed on their behalf.

Recommendations

• Confidentiality should be restricted to a 'need to know' basis and the review system should be shorter, have less paperwork and no jargon, and fewer people attending.

Leaving Care

• Pressure on residential places means that young people are 'pushed' to leave care on their sixteenth birthday. The planning, management and safeguarding of this transition is, at times, unsatisfactory.

Recommendations

• Reviews should determine a realistic timescale for leaving care, a greater range of accommodation should be available as well as the appropriate level of financial support from social services.

After Care

• In some areas, after care services are fragmented, unplanned and occasional.

Recommendations

• Best practice should be uniform across NI, partnerships and protocols should be established between all agencies involved in planning and delivering aftercare services.

Independent Living

• A large percentage of young people who are homeless are from the care population, no one agency appears prepared to accept responsibility for this group of young people.

Recommendations

• All agencies should offer more practical support and there should be a clearly identifiable worker who will carry responsibility. Information on support and services and how to access them should be made available.