Caring for our care leavers

This week I’d like to recognise and commend a very special group of young men and women.

They are our care leavers who recently visited County Hall to discuss and find out more about a new package of support that has been designed to meet their needs.

All of us who are parents know that when children grow into maturity and adulthood it can often be a challenging and tough time. It’s a time of uncertainty when young people are still finding their feet, making their way in the world, and starting to test their independence for the first time.

It usually means a new job, new life and new challenges.

It is a hard enough time for young adults who have a family support network to fall back on. 

Consider then what it must be like for those who have spent their early years in care, and are venturing into the adult world without that wrap around family to fall back on.

They deserve and need all the support that we - as their corporate parent - can provide.

That is why I am so pleased that the new Care Leaver Promise is now in place. It offers all our care leavers a personal advisor to assist with all those practical matters including help with their finances, the benefits that they are entitled to, where they will live and where they will work, including apprenticeships and job opportunities.

Our care leavers are an inspiration to us all and a reminder of how determined young people are, and while we can’t take the place of a family, we can offer the care and support that they need and give them the best start into adulthood and beyond.

No care leaver should ever feel abandoned, forgotten or neglected.

That’s our Promise, and it’s one that I’m so proud to support and uphold.