Care Leavers
Good parents continue to support children as they become adults. Coventry has very high aspirations for its care leavers. This is demonstrated in the local offer for care leavers. This is a requirement under the Children and Social Work Act 2017. The local offer is crucial for making sure that care leavers experience stability into adult life.
The local offer has been co-produced with partners and has been led by the young people themselves and what they want and believe
will help them as adults. Six key initiatives underpinning the offer include:
- Coventry City Council pays apprentices the national living wage
- Care leavers get free leisure passes which include gym membership. In addition to this each care leaver can take a friend so that they feel more motivated to attend
- Council tax exemptions are paid for all care leavers regardless of whether they live in Coventry city or not
- Coventry does not make care leavers intentionally homeless as long as they are working with the City Council to resolve their housing situation
- Increases in the number of young people going on to access higher education at university
- High level of support to young adults in custody, ensuring they have access to LifeLong Links
Coventry has very high ambitions for all our care experienced young people. We are seeking to embed the Five missions from the Care Review into our practice these are:
- No young person should leave care without at least two loving relationships, by 2027
- Double the proportion of care leavers attending university, and particularly high tariff universities, by 2026
- Create new well paid jobs and
- apprenticeships for care leavers each year
- Reduce care experience homelessness now,before ending it entirely
- To increase the life expectancy of care experienced people, by narrowing health inequalities with the wider population
As part of our commitment to this, the local offer is currently being reviewed and updated with a focus on removing cliff edges which can exist at 18 and 25 for care experienced young people.
Care experienced young adults are offered a wide range of social activities, including football, BBQs and a residential trip to Dol-y-Moch. All young people have a Personal Advisor. And access to support around education, training and employment. These include apprenticeships and the EET panel who can signpost young people to additional opportunities in employment and training.
Significantly more young people (95%) aged 11-18yrs in Coventry reported that they regularly practised life skills compared to young people(89%) looked after in other local authorities*.
These aspects of good practice have been endorsed and highlighted by the Department for Education, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the National Benchmarking Forum.
12 by 24 - The Centre for Social Justice
The service also works closely with local businesses to negotiate what they can offer to care leavers. Current examples of this
include water bill exemptions for care leavers,employability options such as preparation for interviews and access to sports facilities.
The care leavers awards are sponsored by businesses who actively get involved on the evening and throughout the year. In 2022, EON were the lead sponsors of the Care Leaver awards, alongside Positive Youth Foundation, ValPak and the REES Foundation.