Who will you vote for in May – what will they do for residential care leavers?

General Elections appear to generate far less excitement and enthusiasm than they should. Consider the Scottish referendum – now there was a great example of democracy. The massive majority of the population of Scotland was exercised by the issue and they showed it. Passionate people who really wanted to be heard on an issue that meant a great deal to them. By comparison the forthcoming British General Election appears at times to be focussed more on style than substance; why else would the media be more concerned with who is going to be part of a televised debate than, for example, why none of the parties have said anything about the discrimination against a group of vulnerable Britons who have been consistently failed by our society for at least the last forty years? A group who, unlike their contemporaries in the ‘Scottish Referendum’, are disenfranchised by virtue of their age knowing that by the time they are eligible to vote it will be too late.

As either a supporter or even casual observer of the ECLCM campaign we would like you to think very hard about the forthcoming election. Of course many of you will already be politically active but the probability is that the majority of you and indeed some of those more directly involved in ECLCM are not. We must though engage with politicians across the country if we are to succeed in having the option to ‘Stay Put’ extended to children in residential care. Great though it is to garner support from local councillors we are aware that whilst we already know that many local politicians support our campaign they are largely powerless to do anything. First they need the law to change and second they need the money to implement any such change. Local councillors do, though, have an important part to play in influencing their Westminster nominees so can we suggest you do something proactive wherever you live to help us make the case for residential care leavers in particular and perhaps all children in care in general?

All MP’s and Local Councillors should surgeries for their constituents and you will find that all those who are seeking to become MP’s or join the local council in May will have both public meetings and surgeries(a few may knock on your door and canvas for your vote) in the next few months. Please book in to attend these meetings and ask some questions. For example:

1) Do you believe in equality of opportunity?

2) Do you support the ECLCM campaign? (When, as is likely, you get a blank response please tell them what this single issue campaign is about) and re-phrase as…..

3) Where do you stand on the issue of ‘Staying Put’ for children leaving residential care?

4) Where does your party stand on this issue?

5) Will your party make any reference to ‘Staying Put’ in their manifesto? If not, why not? If so what is your and/or your Party’s commitment to supporting the option being given to residential care leavers until they are 21?

6) (To councillors / would be councillors only) If Central Government provided sufficient funding would you and your party support Staying Put option for residential care leavers?

This may seem like we are asking you to do a lot but if you care about care leavers then we are certain that you will be willing to do so. Children in care who are approaching care leaving age will not have a vote – please use yours wisely, in part on their behalf, and like our partners in Scotland make this an election that counts. Any effort you put in may be rewarded by giving perhaps just a single child have a better life because like the vast majority of us in this country they will not be automatically evicted from home when they are somewhere between sixteen and eighteen years of age. That will make any effort you put in to making democracy work worthwhile. Won’t it?

In terms of what we’ve been up to ….we have had a meeting (exclusively thanks to our supporter Cllr Nina Killen) with members from Sefton MBC including the Cabinet lead on Children’s social care. We fully appreciate that finance is as we were told a major challenge but the principle of all children in care having the option of staying put until 21 was not challenged.

We are scheduled to meet with and make a presentation to the Labour Group from Liverpool City Council on 30th January and will follow this up with their counterparts in Warrington in March. Obviously we are grateful to all of these politicians for agreeing to meet with us and also to Steve McCabe the Labour Shadow Cabinet member in Westminster who has – in some part thanks to Bill Esterson MP – agreed to meet with us to discuss ECLCM and (though he doesn’t know it yet!) one of our group will be joining a constituent of Andy Burnham’s in one of his constituency surgeries in February. Limited resources we may have – passion and commitment in abundance. Please fight with us.

Just a thought - for care leavers

Just a thought – For care leavers

by Joanna Banana

As I sit here, surrounded by my pets and sipping Baileys on New Years Eve 2014, with my unofficial ‘foster daughter’ curled up asleep on the settee fast asleep, I felt I just needed to write down my feelings on why ALL care leavers need the unconditional support of just SOMEONE!

I’ve worked with teenagers for over 13 years now. I’ve run units for students classed at ‘at risk of exclusion’ and because of my experiences I later became a foster mum and this lead to becoming a ‘Staying put’ mum for those who want to stay in their placements (homes) after the age of 18.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fairy godmother, no matter how old you are I still expect to be treated with the respect I deserve and I still expect all to respect my boundaries and expectations if you’re sharing my home. What you do get in return though is that my home is your home, I care for you as though you were my own and every day is a new day and a fresh start. I have always felt that ALL young people, deserve the basic right to have a place they can always call home and someone to always call on no matter what happens or how old you are!

Why should it be fair for a care leaver to be expected to fend for themselves once they reach 18 just because they’ve been placed in a residential unit or a foster placement that’s not continued? The average age for young people leaving their parents home now is around 27!? and then the support still continues after that. My parents still support me and I was a nightmare of a teenager. I wouldn’t have my own house and my work ethos if it wasn’t for my parents and family’s unconditional love and support. What about the times we’ve physically fought, the times we’ve not done things our parents are proud of? Do they just cast us out forever and say ‘Get on with it now’? Put it this way, I know I’d have not been where I am now without the support I had.

So WHY? is a young person, that through no fault of their own, who have been placed into the care of the local authority, expected to be able to cope? and on their own!

There’s also a lot of stigma and assumptions made care leavers and yp in care! Well they may take drugs or drink too much, they may steal from me, they may have mental health issues, they may not be ‘saveable’ so what’s the point? They will be happier on their own, doing what they want to do!

REALLY? Just imagine some of the most horrific things happening to you that could possibly happen in your life… not just one or 2 things every few years but everything, all at once and ALL the time. Some of these young people never have a magical childhood as they have to look after themselves and live in an adult world right from the beginning. They may only have have ever experienced abuse, crime, neglect, violence, constant rejection and the list could go on. Just imagine how YOU would deal with this and from a very young age.. what kind of coping mechanism would you develope without the guidance and support of someone that makes you feel safe and loved?

You may end up in a foster home but what if that foster home is not a good match as there’s not enough suitable carers in the area and you have to be moved a few times? What if you feel insecure and do something they don’t consider normal?? and want you away from their own children to keep them safe from you and you have to move again? What if this becomes the norm and you start getting older and the only place you end up feeling safe is with some gang or drug users or criminals because they accept you for who you are and then you end up in a children’s home and the circle of destruction becomes endless? Who’s at fault? Is it their choice do you think? I leave the decision to you.

All I know is; who’s to say that your own flesh and blood don’t end up struggling with the same issues and for far less traumatic events happening in their lives and do you give up on THEM? I know my family don’t! perhaps I’m just lucky!

All I know is, the experiences I’ve had as a staying put mum and foster mum have been both very rewarding and sometimes very challenging at the same time but is that any different from being a natural parent?

I have learnt a lot from the young people I work with and at school I’ve often stood up for them if they’ve rebelled against the system or just been themselves. What’s the difference between someone in care doing it and rebelling rather than the Simon Cowells and Richard Bransons of this world that did the same? I’ll tell you, they’ve not had the consistency, guidance and support of a family who help them channel that fire and single mindedness into something more constructive. They’ve not had the same people to fall back on if things don’t work and it’s not just all about money either.

Well it’s nearly midnight and I’m going up to my late, foster son’s room to light a candle in his honor so I bid farewell for now.

Please don’t forget our care leavers – They deserve our unconditional support and care and the odd kick up the bum (like our own kids)

Happy new year folks xxx

December Newsletter

ECLCM are very aware that there are a number of surveys floating around for young people to complete to collect even more data about their experience. We are aware of three; all from different agencies. We already have extensive data. We have already have extensive research. We know what the outcomes for young people in and leaving care are and have been since data collection began. We work hard at working together with all the many organisations that there are, but our message is clear.

Young people need urgent help now. One year on since ECLCM started the campaign, the outcomes for many care leavers are the same. Vulnerable young care leavers will die while surveys are being constructed whose findings will be ignored by Governments. We know that young care leavers will die and certainly will suffer, because between us we have 100's of years of personal and professional experience and we have seen it with our own eyes. Surveys for young people to complete, who are coping with the stressful realities of meeting their basic needs while managing their own trauma, do not need to be patronised by ticking boxes on a form collecting yet more information that has no guarantee of ever being acted on. 

Can we get 10,000 signatures by Christmas?

Please join us in our mission to extend Staying Put to ALL young people by sharing the petition, writing to your MP, talking to your friends and family about it, raising awareness. On last week'sChannel 4 News debate we heard a young woman describe being placed in 30 placements in 3 months. It was said that this was 'completely unacceptable.' This is so far beyond 'completely unacceptable' that what should have been said on live TV was that this is an utter disgrace!

There was also some good news last week,The Tope Project won the Children & Young People Now awards for care leavers. Congratulations from the ECLCM team for this well-deserved recognition of the work they do. The Topé Project is named after a 23-year-old care leaver who took his own life in 2010. In memory of Topé, this Christmas Day will see 70 young people spending the day socialising, playing games, eating Christmas Dinner and sharing their pain while promoting positivity.

The magic of the Topé Project is spreading across the country. There is the Manchester Christmas Dinner #TCD2014 and the Hackney Christmas Dinner #HCD2014 organised by Lemn Sissay, both creating a wonderful Christmas day for 140 care leavers. If you are a care leaver either in Manchester or London without a Christmas dinner, get in touch.

Contact your local MPs and ask them to put, ‘Staying Put’ on the political agenda. The more people that write, the more likely we will get heard. You can find your local MP here.

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On our own, we're good, but together we're amazing!

Thank you and seasons greetings, from the ECLCM team,

Ed Nixon, Rosie Canning, Danielle McLaughlin, Ben Ashcroft, Ian Dickson, Lisa Cherry, Mary Campbell-Wharam, Sarah Sturmey, Rose Devereux, Philomena Harrison, Sarah Jury and Ivor Frank.

What Progress on Justice for Care Leavers?

Are care leavers just more criminal? You might think so when you see them over-represented, year after year, in the criminal justice statistics. Would it be fair to think like this? Of course not! In reality, the situation is far from straightforward. This is certainly evident from current concerns (such as those raised by the House of Commons Justice Committee) over the unnecessary criminalisation of children in care for minor offences, their treatment in the youth justice system and their effective abandonment by local authorities as care leavers in the criminal justice system.

Last month the government’s progress report on the cross-departmental ‘Care Leaver Strategy’ was published to coincide with National Care Leavers’ week. The document provides a progress report on the original strategy which was first published last year. The very publication of such a strategy highlights that there is now some recognition in policy spheres that a more joined-up commitment to care leaver issues is required. In my view, this is absolutely crucial for care leavers who come into conflict with the law. However, it is questionable whether much more than lip service is being paid to the key issues by the policy makers who claim to be addressing the needs of care leavers in the criminal justice system. Interestingly, the ‘Youth Justice’ section in the one-year progress report is noticeably one of the shortest sections of the document at not much more than half a page.

In fact, the longest sections in the government’s progress report are devoted to areas like education and employment. These are perhaps more comfortable topics for ministers to get to grips with, unlike the area of ‘justice’ where the boundaries between ‘victims’ and ‘villains’ become murky and blurred when care leavers are discussed. Whilst it has long been established that there are a disproportionate number of young people who have been in care in prison, what is often neglected is the official statistics that highlight that 62% of children and young people enter care because of abuse or neglect – and a mere 2% because of their own behaviour. What does this say about the state in its role as corporate parent?

Appendix A in the progress report outlines how various government departments have supposedly met or are meeting their targets from one year ago. In relation to the commitments of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), these included appointing a National Care Leaver Champion which has been done, with the post being occupied by the Governor of HMP/YOI Swinfen Hall. A further MoJ commitment is as follows:

“MoJ will develop clear ways of identifying care leavers in adult services both in custody and the community so we can better ensure they receive the right support...It will be coupled with guidance for practitioners who are completing assessment tools so that they understand better who qualifies for care leaver status”.

According to Appendix A, this commitment has been “met”, with guidance published by NOMS (2013) issued to staff in probation and prisons on ways of identifying care leavers. However, whilst the very publication of such guidance is a step forward, it is disappointing that the very first sentence notes that this guidance imposes no new requirements (emphasis in the original). This is certainly not a ringing endorsement for busy, often over-stretched practitioners to sit down and read it. The guidance may well have been produced and disseminated as the care leaver strategy progress report outlines, but the crucial question is has it actually been read, let alone changed ways of working?

To suggest that there are now clear ways of identifying adult care leavers in all parts of the criminal justice system, as indicated in Appendix A, is at best misleading and at worst simply not true. This was a sentiment echoed by a number of practitioners at a recent multi-agency stakeholder event in Lancashire on care leavers, looked after children and the criminal justice system.

Furthermore, my research with Patrick Williams of Manchester Metropolitan University on a pilot programme for care leavers on an intensive community order, and our recently published report for The Care Leavers’ Association shows that the issues are really not that simple. Some of the practitioners we spoke with disclosed a lack of knowledge and understanding about care leaver issues, as well as a fear of raising ‘care issues’ with young people – often because of genuine concerns over labelling and stigma. As one key stakeholder astutely observed in relation to the woeful neglect of care leavers in the criminal justice system:

“It’s not been high priority or any priority sometimes when it comes to policy and direction and instruction and even assessment systems. It’s kind of like one of the things that’s ignored. Who knows properly why? I think some of it is they thought it wasn’t that important when actually it’s incredibly important. I think some of it is possibly concern about how to do it. When do you ask? Are they going to want to say? Should you be asking? Is it personal? How do you record it?...I think there’s some genuine concern about labelling...”.

It is clear that the issues raised above are not peculiar to our research site, but how can they begin to be addressed? As we argue in our report, specialist support is required that goes beyond more generic family-focused projects. The practitioners and care leavers that we interviewed both emphasised the value of a user-led intervention – delivered by those who have had experience of the care and criminal justice systems – and who had specialist knowledge about the support that individuals might be entitled to under the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000.

A second multi-agency roundtable discussion on some of these very issues will take place in Lancashire next spring which will be organised in collaboration with The Care Leavers’ Association. The event is supported by the Lancaster University FASS Enterprise Centre and aims to give practitioners from the North West and beyond a chance to grapple with some of the challenges their organisations may face with supporting care leavers in the criminal justice system. A further objective is to identify potential solutions and action points to take forwards, building on some of the good practice that already occurs.

Whilst not wishing to undermine the good practice that does exist, and can be found, in various pockets of the country, the simple truth is that, in spite of the official rhetoric that creates an illusion of targets met, not nearly enough progress has been made centrally in relation to providing sustainable and consistent support to care leavers in the criminal justice system. Far more political will and strategic will is required for this to happen – in the UK as well as in other jurisdictions. Care leavers deserve better than this.

Dr Claire Fitzpatrick (@CJJFitzpatrick) is Lecturer in Criminology in the Lancaster University Law School and has a long-standing research interest in children in care and care-leavers in the criminal justice system. She has written widely on this topic including the book ‘Young People in Care and Criminal Behaviour’ (2006). Her recent working paper on ‘Achieving justice for children in care and care leavers’ (2014) has been published as part of the Howard League for Penal Reform’s ‘What is Justice? series.

This blog post was originally published by the Lancaster University Law School. The views presented are personal and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of either the Law School or the University.

Are politicians really in touch with what life is like for care leavers?

This week I exchanged opinions on social media with a well-known Member of Parliament with a special interest in looked after children. It’s not important to say which MP because his views appear to be widely held by many national politicians. Like many politicians, the MP was keen to impress upon me what great developments and improvements had been introduced for young people leaving care in recent years, and how much better things now were.

I was reminded by this conversation of those who say that we ought to be more positive and celebrate how well some care leavers have done, how more get to university than did a generation ago, how aftercare has improved, the Care Leavers’ Charter, Children in Care Councils, and so on. I hear what they say, but then I look once more at the statistics which show starkly how care leavers remain over represented in all the disadvantage groups for young people. That being so, how can anyone claim things are better?

In contrast, I also spent time this week with a group of young care leavers. I guess they were aged between 18 and 22. The members of this group had a wide range of care experience; foster care, residential care, supported lodgings, and even custody.  I met with them at a group run by a small charity dedicated to supporting young care leavers.  It was obvious that they relied heavily on the support they received from the dedicated workers from that charity, and I realised how they would struggle if that support wasn’t available... but I digress.

I struggle to celebrate the alleged improvement in the lives of care leavers because I think much of it is illusory, an impression strengthened every time I meet with young care leavers as I did this week. Of course there were great initiatives (often initiated by young people from care and care leavers) that are trumpeted widely by politicians to show how well they have done. 

I think back to the ‘A National Voice’ bin bag campaign some years ago, and lots of local authorities signing up to declare that young people in care would never have to move from home to home with their possessions in plastic bin bags.  The young care leavers I spoke with this week told me that many of them still did not have suitcases, and they had relied on bin bags as so many care leavers did before them. Some were provided with suitcases or ruck sacks by the hard working charity. Little change there then!

Then there was the ‘Care Leavers’ Charter’. Once again, local authorities queued to sign it and declare how well they would support children and young people leaving care. Again, politicians were quick to cite this as a major development for care leavers.  It was obvious talking to the young care leavers I met that the Charter was not being implemented ‘at the sharp end’.  In spite of requests, the government was very clear that they would not make the Charter mandatory or offer increased funding to enable local authorities to implement it. So, we have another initiative that looks great on paper and politicians’ speeches, but is often simply ignored where it matters most – in the lives of care leavers.

The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 was a piece of child care policy that was made law, and should have improved the lives of care leavers immeasurably. Pathway plans, consultation and participation, ongoing support and assistance with education, accommodation etc.  Was this this the support that we care leavers had campaigned for for generations? Sadly no, because it was simply not implemented in full and hidebound by mind boggling restrictions and definitions…. Young people might be eligible, relevant, former relevant … what’s all that about? Surely being a care leaver in need of real support from the corporate parent should be enough?  - But no.

Then we had ‘Staying Put’, loudly celebrated by many as a major breakthrough in child care policy to meet the needs of care leavers. Now care leavers might stay on with their carers until they were 21 and would no longer be compelled to leave home at 16+ and fend for themselves (something  that the children of politicians and decision makers would never be forced to do).

Whilst some celebrated, many including the ‘Every Child Leaving Care Matters’ (ECLCM)  team, realised this initiative excluded 9% of all young people leaving care, including all those in residential children’s homes.  Not only had the needs of care leavers not been met, a completely new element of discrimination had been introduced into service provision.  Discriminatory practice will never be acceptable and ECLCM will continue to oppose it until all care leavers receive the same full ‘Staying Put’ support.

Even so, we were led to believe, young people leaving foster care would now be able to ‘stay put’ until 21 in their foster placements?  Apparently not it seems.  It seems to depend upon where the young person is living and who they are placed with whether they are able to remain with their foster carers until they are 21. They kept quiet about that bit.

I listened to the young care leavers I met this week. One spoke of living in a foster home from being 6 years old, and when they were 16 being told they would need to leave and go into supported lodgings. They were made to move against their will. The young person said that they were exploited and abused in their supported placement, and their foster carer was so horrified they demanded the young person be allowed to return to live with them.  That rang a bell with me - a carer sticking their neck out and representing and supporting a child when the corporate parent failed to do so. But if carers cannot or aren’t prepared to do this – what then? It reinforced the centrality of positive long term caring relationships in good care, and the lottery that is care. That was the same when I left care 47 years ago.

The young people spoke of constantly changing social workers, of not being made to feel  welcome when they had to visit ‘Social Services’, of having decisions made for them rather than with them, and of having information about them shared with teachers and others without their consent. It all sounded depressingly familiar. Two young people who had been in custody whilst still in care spoke of being refused housing support when they came out.  That was supposed to have changed long ago. This all sounded much the same as leaving care has for years.

There appears to be a significant ‘disconnect’ between politicians and decision makers and those at the bottom end of the chain who depend upon the corporate parent. In spite of the rhetoric of some MPs, Life for too many care leavers has not improved greatly from that we experienced generations ago.  Care leavers don’t need surveys, more research or political rhetoric. They want practical help, stability, security,  support,  people who care, a safe place to live, prospects and reasons to hope…Do you still wonder why the ECLCM team campaign?

A letter from ECLCM to Ed Miliband

Dear Mr Miliband (or May I call you Ed?)

I really do appreciate the fact that it must be incredibly hard to lead a political party that is seeking to win the next General Election – particularly when you seem to have so many people sitting in ‘the wings’ merely waiting for you to make a less than perfect decision or say something that might be scurrilously misinterpreted by the media.  I am a social worker and I have lived with this type of pressure for the last 40 years – less publicly certainly but perhaps on even more critical issues than at times you find yourself talking about.

You probably don’t even know that I have written to you a couple of times and even – despite my rather aged fear of social media – tweeted to you? I feel sure that given the pressure under which you work there are other people who deal with your correspondence and as such I wonder if perhaps this open letter might find it’s way into your busy schedule rather more effectively than my previously and self evidently poor attempts to engage you. Please don’t feel that I am targeting you for special attention or criticism – I have written and tweeted to many of your Shadow Cabinet colleagues too and haven’t heard from them either.

I need to say that I listened to your speech this week and I thought it sounded rather splendid. I agreed with so much of what you said about inequality in our society; how those who appear to need help most do at times seem to be the ones who struggle to get it and how we seem at times to be a society in which the chasm between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ appears to be growing faster than the polar ice sheets are shrinking. Bravo!

I would though like to mention a group in our society who my friends (or should I say like minded individuals in relation to the group I am referring to? Luckily I seem to have well over 8000 who have formally declared their allegiance) and I feel you really could do with thinking about.

This group are comprised of children and those approaching adulthood - well, in chronological terms anyway – they have all had really bad starts in life and have been brought up through at least some of their childhood by you, me and the rest of our society, their Corporate Parents. ‘My group’ are children in residential care. Great kids, wonderful individuals who now and for the last two or three generations have been disadvantaged by our society.

Regardless of how busy you must be I am certain that you have been aware of the discussions around ‘staying put’. You may well not have heard about Every Child Leaving Care Matters but that’s OK. Last December the Government announced that children in foster care would be able to have the option to stay with their foster carers  until they were twenty-one years of age – Great news we all thought and waited for the rest of the announcement which would surely ( we wrongly thought) extend that option to kids in residential care. It didn’t come, it still hasn’t come. What do you think about that Mr M? We know many of your colleagues in Labour's parliamentary group are shocked, disappointed or horrified at this inequality as they have told us so, though it might be considered invidious if we were to name them. We would, however, ask that if you do win that General Election in May 2015 and are looking to fill your Cabinet that you look toward Mr Bill Esterson as someone who seems to understand more than most about children’s social care.

We have only one request to put to you. Will you please say that you support the recommendations of the Education Select Committee ‘Into independence, not out of care: 16 plus care options’ and specifically that the option for ‘staying put’ in their placement should be available to all children not just those in foster placements.

Obviously I could go on and there is so much more I would like to tell you about children in care but I realise that you are busy. If you do want to learn a little more about children in care I know many such children and adults who have survived or worked with Care survivors who would be delighted to talk to you.

If you could just take 30 seconds to do as I ask I would be grateful to and respect you.

Best wishes

Ed Nixon

On behalf of the ECLCM Campaign

The View of a Residential Child Care Worker

When I tell people I'm an Residential Child Care Worker, there are certain questions I can almost guarantee what I'll get asked.

'So. What is an RCW?'

'Well, it's like the kids TV program Tracy Beaker but not really.'

'Oh ok!'

Actually it's nothing like Tracy Beaker but that might just be the closest they are ever going to get to understanding without actually working in a children’s home.

When I first applied to work in a residential children’s home, I had no idea they even existed. I thought they where huge 40 bedded homes that only existed in horror movies or old black and white photographs. Little did I know.

'So are they like disabled or naughty?'

This is a tough one so the easiest answer is sometimes - yes some have disabilities but not always and yes some can be naughty, but not always. Naughty to me is when someone jumps out from around a corner and shouts BOO! Which happens. A lot.

'It must be such a hard job, I couldn't do it.'

Maybe you could, maybe you couldn’t. I was once told that residential carers have the shortest shelf life. I'm not sure about that. I know people who have been there for 15 years, and I know people who have been there a few months.

'What do you do with them?'

What I certainly don't do is 'fix' these young people. But what I do do, is, as part of a team, try to help them in their every day lives. Helping them learn the tools they will need to survive in this scary world. But that's sometimes hard when you have less then a few months to do it in.

That's why, when at 16, 17, or 18, it is ridiculously tough to watch them go off into the world. The big bad scary world where they are 'too young' even to hold a tenancy agreement. Which makes no sense. Not equipped socially to say No to the so called friends that ARE going to take advantage of their situations. Not able to stay at college because they can't afford the bus, new clothes, or a backpack to carry their books in. Not able to apply for jobs because they can't afford the Internet or a Laptop to apply, or even a newspaper. They go from 24 hour support to nothing. Zero. Sounds unbelievable and people say surely there's something. In cities there a very few charities that might be able to help. In the middle of nowhere for example, the deep dark depths of Devon? Not so much.

Outreach support does exist but it's down to 'funding'. Not every young person knows what they are legally entitled to when they leave care, and what funding is strictly to be used for. I once got told that a young person had to pay for their moving van out of their leaving care grant. That money is strictly for setting up your home, not moving to your home!

Most of these things are out of an RCW's control. Sometimes the best you can do is let go, let them move on, remind them how far they have come and to keep in touch. A quick hug or hand shake and wipe away the tears before they see. What is in our control is making the transaction as smooth as possible: visits, a leaving party, cards with messages, gifts and scrap books full of happy times and good, positive memories. Tokens they can keep and look back on. I might not be able to help the ones who have already moved on, but hopefully by helping support ECLCM I can somehow go on to help the next one, and the next one.

Sarah Jury