Charities call on Lords to stop postcode lottery on leaving care

40 leading charities, organisations and academics have written to the House of Lords calling on them to seize their once in a generation opportunity to change the lives of thousands of vulnerable young people this week, as they discuss an amendment to the Children and Families Bill that would allow care leavers in England to stay with their foster families to the age of 21.

Currently most young people are forced to leave their foster homes at the age of 17, unless they are one of the lucky ones supported by their local authority or their foster carer can fund them to stay out of their own pocket. This leads to a postcode lottery across England, with the percentage of young people staying with their foster carer by the age of 19 ranging regionally from just 1 to 10% of all care leavers.

In contrast, the average age for leaving home across England is 24. Living independently, these young people are often reliant on benefits. Less than a third of care leavers are currently in education, training or employment at the age of 19.

"Staying Put" - a scheme that gives young people the option to stay until 21 – has already been piloted in 11 English local authorities with great success. It showed that young people who stayed with foster carers were twice as likely to be in full time education at 19 compared with those that did not. Studies have also found that allowing young people to remain in care until 21 is associated with increased post-secondary educational attainment, delayed pregnancy, and higher earnings.

Now an amendment to the Children and Families Bill provides an opportunity to change this for future generations, by giving young people who live with foster carers the chance to stay until they are 21, if both parties agree. But in order to have any chance of success, the amendment needs widespread support in the House of Lords, where the Bill is about to enter committee stage.

Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, said:- "Every single year that this change in the law is delayed, the Government is potentially condemning thousands more vulnerable young adults, who have had experiences that most cannot even contemplate, to a life of overreliance on the state and under contributing to society.  3 years of extra support may seem like nothing, but it can be the real difference between someone quitting college to cope with the demands of living alone, or staying with a foster family, continuing with education and flourishing as a contributing member of society. Currently only around 7% of care leavers go into higher education compared with 40% of the general population, and this must change."

When the Bill was in the House of Commons, children's minister Edward Timpson MP, himself the son of foster carers, said that he would consider legislation if the voluntary approach was shown not be working. New Department for Education statistics show that only 10 more young people stayed with their foster carers in 2012 to 2013 than in 2011 to 2012. In total, just 5% of all care leavers were still with their foster carers by the age of 19.

Tapsfield added that:- "Every local authority across the country has the responsibility for their children in care. At the current rate of voluntary progress being made by local authorities, it would take 140 years until enough provision was made for these vulnerable young people.   Care leavers are overrepresented in prison populations, and are more likely to be unemployed, single parents, mental health service users and homeless than those who grew up within their own families. Corporate parents should not continue to give their children a raw deal."

Charities joining the call include the Fostering Network, Coram, NSPCC, Action for Children, Barnardo's, the Children's Society and NCB.