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Who is a care leaver?

You are a care leaver if you are either:

  • over the age of 16 and looked after by the local authority
  • you have been looked after for a period of time after your 16th birthday

The type of care leaver you are depends on:

  • your age
  • whether you are currently looked after
  • how many weeks you were looked after for after your 16th birthday

Leaving care before the age of 18

You can choose to leave care before you turn 18 but we do not encourage it as it may affect on some of the benefits you are entitled to.

The Director of Children’s Services must agree to allow a 16 or 17 year old to leave care.

If you do choose to leave care before you are 18, we will ensure that you are in suitable accommodation and provide you with assistance to meet your needs in relation to education, training or employment as set out in your pathway plan.

You are an eligible care leaver if:

  • you are currently looked after; and
  • you're aged 16 or 17; and
  • you have been looked after for a period of 13 weeks (or periods amounting to 13 weeks) which began after you reached 14 and ended after you reached 16

You are a relevant care leaver if you are no longer looked after by the local authority, but:

  • you have been ‘eligible’; and
  • you're aged 16 or 17
  • immediately before being detained or in hospital you were ‘eligible’; or
  • you have lived for a continuous period of 6 months or more with a parent, someone with parental responsibility and where those arrangements break down

You are a former relevant care leaver if:

  • you are aged 18 years or above, and either have been a 'relevant' or 'eligible' child when under 18

You are a qualifying care leaver if:

  • you are at least 16 but under 21; and
  • you were looked after immediately prior to the making of a special guardianship order which was in force when you reached 18; or
  • if at any time after reaching the age of 16, but before reaching the age of 18 you have been a looked after child, accommodated by or on behalf of a voluntary organisation, registered children’s home, or by a health authority or privately fostered

As a qualifying care leaver, you are able to ask for advice and befriending. You can get some assistance with costs associated with education, based on a needs assessment. This will be completed by the Transition and Leaving Care team. You will not be entitled to the full care leaver offer.

Support for care leavers

If you are not sure whether you qualify for support then you can ask your personal advisor or social worker, or find out more on the Coram Voice website.

In 2018 the government introduced new laws to ensure that any former relevant care leaver between ages 21-25 who wants and needs support from a personal advisor could get it.This has helped us to look at how we can make our services for care leavers better.

We have been working together with different services, partners and care leavers to make sure that we have the right support available, at the right time to help you. We want to set that out in a way that’s easy to understand.

As a local authority we are your corporate parents. This may seem like a strange term but it means that we are here to offer you the support and guidance that others would expect from a reasonable parent.  More importantly, you have the right to be involved in all decisions about your plans for leaving care.

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