Bryn Melyn Foundation - Care Leavers' Week

Click here for a related interview with children's minister Kevin Brennan on care issues.

ePolitix.com speaks to Janet Rich of the Bryn Melyn Foundation about National Care Leavers' Week.

Question: What initially inspired you to develop NCLW?

Janet Rich: We, along with a number of organisations who had been working in children’s services, had become increasingly aware of some of the problems that young people have when faced by the adult world. In 2002, it was clear that these problems were still overwhelming.

These were, in our opinion, socially and politically unacceptable, especially in the lack of support and the lack of understanding of their needs. 

Question: What specific challenges do care leavers face?

Janet Rich: There are several key problems. Firstly, the problem of housing is key, especially in the context of a national shortage of suitable housing for single people.

Although amendments to legislation have made some difference, especially the Care Leavers Act from 2000 and subsequent amendments to housing legislation, the fact is that there is not enough suitable accommodation for care leavers.

Even in well resourced areas like Westminster, where there are some very good projects going on, these are still transitional, and that young people have to move on from them quite quickly.

The other huge areas where care leavers often face problems are in finance, in employment and more generally, in finding ways to access society.

These are young people without networks, very much cut adrift from society. These people have not had the experience of family life, and all the advantages of that and all the knowledge about every aspect of society that living in a family can bring.

It is very hard, if not impossible, to replicate these experiences for children and young people growing up in care.

There are also major problems in terms of relationships and emotional wellbeing. People growing up in care have often experienced difficult family situations and fractured relationships.

Then, whilst in care, they might have experienced more instability and the constant upheaval of changing care placements, which is down to the system, more than the individual child.

Then, just as they begin to settle down as older teenagers and address some of their issues and have a more positive outlook, they have to deal with the traumatic experience of leaving the care system that they have grown used to.  
 
Question: How do they differ from those faced by young people leaving their family's home for the first time?

Janet Rich: There are two stark differences, the first one is choice. For most people leaving their family's homes for the first time, they choose when they leave.

That age is getting later and later, around 25-30. These choices are made on the basis on both emotional readiness, and now other demographic and financial factors are influencing the time when people leave home. People in care do not have that choice. They have to leave care on a pre-arranged date.

The other major difference is that for most young people leaving their homes for the first time, either to go to university or to live in a flat with a partner, they will return home.

It will often take two or three attempts for young people to leave home fully, and the ability to be able to return home is simply absent for people leaving care.

Question: The government recently launched a white paper on care, what is Bryn Melyn's response to this?

Janet Rich: In terms of the specific measures put in place for care leavers, it is generally a very welcome proposal.

Especially in that we now feel the government has fully grasped one of the most important realities for care leavers: leaving care is a transitional process which can take many years.

This is one of the issues we have been trying to highlight through National Care Leavers' Week.

The government have now fully understood that some children have been pushed out of care too early, with too little choice.

The government has proposed a number of measures intended to address all the key issues; housing, access to employment and most crucially, better personal support from advisers and social services departments, which is continued for a longer period.

There are also some other very important measures around children being given the absolute right to choose not to leave foster care until they are 18, and in some cases, 21.

These are all very welcome, but we need to wait to see the detail of the legislation. We hear from many local authorities that they are not going to be given sufficient resources to be able to implement the many ambitious plans as set out in the white paper. We hope very much that the proposals are not diluted and that there is radical change.

There is more to do and this is a good bill, but as it goes through parliament it is key that the detail is exactly right, as this will be the last opportunity for a number of years to legislate for children in care.

Question: What events do you have planned for this year's NCLW?

Janet Rich: In terms of the main national events, it is a little bit different from previous years. There are going to be two major events, one in Leeds and one in London. They are the major focus of energy for all those involved in delivering children’s services and developing best practice solutions.

There are conference seminar events which will be attended by 300 people, including both care professionals and young people. These are designed to showcase new research, share best practise and disseminate information that will enable better delivery of services to care leavers.

The events for National Care Leavers' Week are being organised by one of our partner organisations, the What Makes the Difference? project.

This has been a three year project aimed at working out what really works for care leavers. Along with their research work, they have also been tasked with creating useful tools to make sure that the research is translated into a readily usable forms, information packs, DVDs and other resources.

These will be launched by WMTD? during the week and will be made available to local authorities during the week.

There will also, along with these two major events, be many smaller events throughout the country, many of which have been specifically organised by local authorities.

Question: Do you have any final messages for ePolitix.com readers?

Janet Rich: The most important message we have is to be care aware. The needs of those leaving care, although starkly obvious to those working in the sector, are very specific and differentiated for that group.

They comprise a very small sector of society, there are only 6,000 young people a year leaving care in England. As they are such a small group it is easy to see how they can be marginalized.

The flipside to that is, there are only 6,000, can it really be so difficult for local and central government to get these services right and significantly improve these people’s life chances?

We always here the horror stories and statistics about how care leavers make up a massively disproportionate percentage of subgroups: prison populations, mental health populations, homeless populations.

What is genuinely amazing is that so many care leavers go on to lead happy, productive lives, perhaps in spite of, rather than because of, what the care system provides.