Care leavers are let down on Care Matters promises

4 May 2010

One of the most solid achievements for care leavers from the Care Matters programme was a pledge to provide all eligible care leavers with a £2,000 bursary to assist them with the cost of getting through university. The Children and Young Person's Act 2008 made this a statutory provision – no more post code lottery – no more uncertainty about levels of support. Every care leaver entering higher education who met the requirements and commenced a course after September 2008 would receive an additional and fixed amount of cash support to ease the burden of student debt and the stresses associated with financial insecurity that can make higher level study such a challenge for care leavers with no family to fall back on.

Unfortunately The Care Leavers Foundation, which has been providing small grants to care leavers for ten years, has found NO REDUCTION in the numbers of care leavers applying for support through its fund for assistance at university. Trustee Janet Rich said "we did expect that there would be a reduction in this particular type of application, although we would still expect to support some students, whose courses began before September 2008, or who were ineligible for other reasons. We were not too surprised to get applications from care leavers who were not aware of the new entitlement, however we were horrified – on following up the applications - to discover how many leaving care teams claimed to have no knowledge of the Bursary."

DCSF have issued circulars to local authorities, and the funding for the payment of these awards was included in the Area Based Grant with effect from the financial year 2008/09. If local authorities have spent the money elsewhere this does not reduce the entitlement of the care leaver. In a fact sheet issued by DCSF the conditions are clearly explained and it states "The £2,000 bursary is a minimum amount which is over and above any money and support that young people are entitled to under Section 23C(4) of the 1989 Children Act, or which local authorities already provide for care leavers who pursue a course of higher education. It must not be in place of existing support."

Rich stated that "This is one of the few instances where the Government has acted clearly, decisively and fairly to ensure that every care leaver, regardless of where they live in the country, has a little extra support to enable them to get onto the higher education ladder. That some local authorities are blatantly ignoring this statutory requirement is absolutely unacceptable. DCSF needs to urgently ensure an information campaign to ensure that all care leaving teams, and Universities themselves, are aware of the Bursary."

The Foundation is also calling for every local authority to audit its current student population and establish how many under-graduates it may already have on courses who have not received the money they are entitled to. They should actively seek out these students and ensure that they receive the £2,000 that has been allocated for them.

Care Leavers who are currently at university and believe they should have received the Care Leavers' Bursary should seek further information through their university, or through advocacy and information services such as Voice and NCAS.

Notes:

The Care Leavers Bursary was introduced through the Government's Care Matters Programme and funding to pay for this new Bursary was given to Local Authorities form April 2008 through the Care Matters Grant, part of their Area Based Grant.

The Children Act 1989 (Higher Education Bursary)(England) Regulations 2009 can be downloaded from

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/draft/ukdsi_9780111480663_en_1

DCSF has published a FAQ document about the Care Leavers Higher Education Bursary. This canabe downloaded at [scroll to bottom of page]:
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/safeguardingandsocialcare/childrenincare/educationalachievement/educationalachievement/

Contact:

Janet Rich
The Care Leavers' Foundation
www.thecareleaversfoundation.org
www.nationalcareleaversweek.org
Tel. 01678 540 598
Mobile 07990 576 487

Other useful organisations :

National Care Advisory Service
www.leavingcare.org 020 7336 4824

Voice
www.voiceyp.org 020 7833 5792

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