'Care leavers are far more likely to become homeless. As a minister, I want to change that'

Leaving care should never mean losing your home. Yet for too many young people, that is exactly what happens.

Most of us can fall back on family when life goes wrong: a spare room, a guarantor, or simply just a loving supportive phone call. Many care leavers have none of that. In practice, they have to fend for themselves from the age of 18, when most young people still live with their parents.

The consequences of this are a travesty. Care leavers are far more likely to end up homeless than the wider population. Since 2019, the number of 18- to 20-year-olds with experience of care who get homelessness support has grown at almost three times the rate of the population overall.

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These are young people the state has parented. We have a responsibility to change this shameful situation.

This summer I published a seminal national review into the deaths of care leavers. The findings were harrowing – vulnerable young adults left abandoned, with nobody to turn to, and ending up dying in tragic circumstances.

I am determined to stop that, and to make enduring relationships the central obsession of children’s social care policy. We are working to ensure that young people leaving care have a tribe a support network of people they can rely on, to help them into adult life.

This week we have built on that promise by launching our Care Leaver Homelessness Reduction Action Plan as part of the prime Mmnister’s drive to end rough sleeping.

Our ambition is that no young person becomes homeless when they leave care, and that the proportion of care leavers under 25 needing homelessness help will be halved by the end of this parliament.

Under new rules, local authorities are required to publish their plans for care leavers’ accommodation needs, work with housing partners, and support those at risk of homelessness in their local offer for care leavers.

Many people don’t know about a rule called “intentional homelessness”. If someone loses their home because of something they did, or didn’t do, the council can decide they made themselves homeless. Not paying rent on purpose is one example. People in this situation get much less help.

Until now, this rule could apply to young people leaving care, even if they had no family to turn to. No parent would see it that way, and neither should we.

Our new plan changes this for some care leavers under 25. Councils will also have to publish the housing and support they offer. They must make sure support is in place, so that no young person is ever told to “present as homeless” just to get a roof over their head.

This builds on the wider support we already give these young people.

The Staying Close programme helps young people leaving care find a home near people they know, with ongoing support from a trusted adult as they settle in.

We are investing £25 million in Staying Close this year. We are also making it a national duty for eligible care leavers up to the age of 25, meaning they get dedicated support with work, health and education and housing after leaving care as well as more housing options in local communities.

This support is for those most at risk of homelessness. Part of that risk comes from loneliness, because too often we leave them on their own when they leave care. In the summer I launched the Enduring Relationships programme, to find various ways we can make sure young people who have been in care have a support network and don’t end up isolated.

A home is something most of us take for granted. Every young person leaving care deserves one, and we will be in their corner until they have it.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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